Do diabetes patients respond effectively to SARS-CoV-2?
Italian research suggests they do, but hyperglycaemia is still strongly associated with worse outcomes
Patients with type 2 diabetes mount an effective antibody response to the SARS-CoV-2 virus, Italian doctors report.
Their study also confirms previous research that hyperglycaemia correlates with worse outcomes for patients with COVID-19 pneumonia — with a dose-dependent effect.
And the data shows that diabetes patients are more than twice as likely to die from COVID-19 as those who do not have the condition.
However, the new finding quashes the theory that their immune response might be impaired and unable to mount a response to the virus, the authors say.
