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. 2020 Aug:166:108278.
doi: 10.1016/j.diabres.2020.108278. Epub 2020 Jun 25.

Diabetes and COVID-19: IDF perspective in the Western Pacific region

Yerin Hwang  1 , Altaisaikhan Khasag  2 , Weiping Jia  3 , Alicia Jenkins  4 , Chien-Ning Huang  5 , Daisuke Yabe  6 , Doo-Man Kim  7 , Takashi Kadowaki  8 , Moon-Kyu Lee  9
Affiliations

Diabetes and COVID-19: IDF perspective in the Western Pacific region

Yerin Hwang et al. Diabetes Res Clin Pract. 2020 Aug.

Abstract

The World Health Organization (WHO) declared a pandemic, the highest risk level in the infectious disease alert phase, on 11 March 2020. In the Western Pacific Region (WPR), 192,016 confirmed cases with 7125 deaths had been reported as of 8 June 2020. In people with diabetes COVID-19 can be more difficult to treat due to the wide fluctuations in blood glucose levels or presence of comorbidities such as diabetes complications, including cardiovascular disease and renal damage, which are recognized risks for adverse outcomes. National diabetes associations and governments have established guidelines for subjects with diabetes in relation to COVID-19, and are trying to supply emergency and their regularly required medical products for them. The WPR is so large and composed of such diverse countries and COVID-19 situations, no one conclusion or program applies. Instead we could see a diverse COVID-19 pandemic profile in the WPR, and several creative diagnostic and therapeutic measures undertaken. This includes drive-through screening facilities, high-speed RT-PCR technologies, convalescent patients' plasma therapy, which potentially had some positive contributions in combatting COVID-19 in the WPR as well as globally. Although the numbers of confirmed cases are currently decreasing in the region, the COVID-19 pandemic is not over, and many experts are recommending to prepare measures for potential second or third waves of COVID-19.

Keywords: COVID-19; Diabetes.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper

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