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Studies have shown roughly one in two Indians, almost 47% live with diabetes and are not even aware of those conditions. Diabetes is not only one of the causes of increasing COVID-19 severity and covid mortality but also one of the causes of Mucormycosis, also called Black Fungus. How are they related? BOOM Explains.
Dr. Nikhil Tandon, Professor and Head of Endocrinology, AIIMS New Delhi, says that over the last year we have learned that if you have diabetes, especially, if it is long standing, uncontrolled and if it is associated with complications, the odds are that if you do catch COVID, you are going to have a more severe form of disease. You will possibly more often than not require hospitalization, oxygen, ventilation and you have a higher propensity to mortality.
He also says that when we look at factors to pay attention to, we broadly categorize them into two things, which are modifiable and things which are non-modifiable. Virtually all the people getting mucormycosis today are those who had covid and nearly all, if not all, is happening in those with diabetes, which is uncontrolled. We can’t do anything about variants of concern, but you can definitely do something about diabetes.
Watch BOOM’s Govindraj Ethiraj speak with Dr. Nikhil Tandon on the links between covid and high blood sugar and how diabetes needs to be controlled to combat COVID-19 and mucormycosis in India