Diabetes type 1 and Covid-19

[Reece Sargent]

Has anyone on here with type 1 caught Covid yet ? I just want to find out how safe we are as type 1 diabetics? Diagnosed February 2017, kind of still new to me all this.

 

[rebrascora]

Hi
Unfortunately responses are highly variable just like anything else. We have at least one forum member who I believe is over 70 long term Type 1 diabetic who tested positive but was hardly ill at all with it and another who ended up in hospital on oxygen for over a week. They are just two I can think of.

The best you can do is put plenty of effort into managing your BG levels as well as you can and keeping yourself as fit and healthy as possible. Those things will reduce your risks, but beyond that it is a lottery. You certainly have age on your side, so that should reduce your risks further but no one is safe and no one is certain to die from it. The luck of the draw is what it will come down to ultimateyl and you can't do much about that, so try not to worry too much about it, but take whatever steps you can to reduce your exposure.

 

[trophywench]

I'm the 70 yo! Husband lost sense of taste last December, oops we said, perhaps you better get a test - so he rang 111 and got a test, next morning he got a test saying he was +, so then I got a test and I was + too. OH has COPD and only 50% lung capacity, and so rang the GP who prescribed steroids and antibiotic, same as they always do with chest infections for him since he's had COPD. Meanwhile I had a runny nose for a few days - like I was getting a cold - and we were both sleeping for England at the drop of a hat. Inside 7 days I was OK again. His sense of taste came back after c. 10 days.

We're both still fine, and had our first Covid jabs last Sunday.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

There were some scary numbers about the risks to T1s in an early research paper (3x the risk of death or somesuch), but it’s vital to recognise that the average age of the people who sadly died in those data was mid-70s. From momory, at age 44 the risk of death was roughly equivalent to the general population, and there had been no deaths of any T1s in their 20s.

So the vast majority of people who get covid (whether living with any form of diabetes or not) will only get a mild illness... but they know that covid when you have T1 is potentially very serious if you get it badly, especially because it seems that ketones can come on quickly and at relatively low BG levels for T1s.

So don’t panic, and there’s no recommendation to fully self isolate, but do be careful and stringently follow social distancing / hands face space advice 🙂

 

[Thebearcametoo]

One thing worth knowing is that the paediatric team reported that they had several patients who showed ketones even when their glucose was only around 10 so if you have covid it can be worth keeping an eye on your ketones and treating accordingly if they’re raised (the insulin will be used to deal with the ketones before bringing glucose down so you can end up struggling to manage glucose levels as with any illness so refer to the sick day rules for ketone treatment). But otherwise as has been said the actual illness varies so much for person to person there’s no specific need to worry.

 

[Reece Sargent]

Thanks for the replies guys.

 

[Spozkins]

Just a reminder that all illnesses can be dangerous for us t1s. I ended up in hospital with KA after a very mild cold one year because I failed to detect ketones as my BG were all fine.

So agree with others, look after yourself in general and keep up to date with yourself on how to best manage ketones for sick days and I am sure you will be okay.