COVID poses trying times for diabetics: Dr Jitendra Singh

Dr Singh was speaking as the chief guest at the ‘World Congress of Indian Academy of Diabetes’

Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh, who is also a renowned diabetologist, said that COVID poses trying times for diabetics. Delivering the inaugural address, as chief guest, at the ‘World Congress of Indian Academy of Diabetes’ being held for the first time on a virtual platform under the name ‘Dia-V Con 2020’, Dr Singh said, like in many other fields, even in academics, COVID has prompted us to discover new norms in adversity, which is visibly evident in the success of an international conference like this of such a big magnitude.

He complimented renowned endocrinologist Dr Shashank Joshi from Mumbai, Dr Banshi Saboo from Ahmedabad and the entire team of organisers for having brought together the best of faculty from as many as four continents of the world, including eminent world scholars of Diabetes like Dr Andrew Boulton, President International Diabetes Federation, Dr Fracese Xavier, Dr Itarnar Raz, Dr Florian Totai as well as leading Indian Diabetologists like Dr V Mohan, Dr Arvind Gupta and others.

Dr Singh said, those suffering from diabetes have an immuno-comprised status, which tends to reduce their resistance and make them more vulnerable to Corona like infections as well as consequent complications. This, he said, leads to an even more vulnerable situation when a patient suffering from diabetes also has kidney involvement or diabetic-nephropathy, chronic kidney disease etc.

In a situation like this, Dr Singh noted that the diabetologists owned a special responsibility towards their patients in keeping their blood sugar level strictly under control to avoid infection and at the same time educating them about precautions to be exercised. He said, “Even though the COVID-related death rate in India has been low as compared to other countries, most of the deaths occurred here were among those Corona positive patients who were also suffering from comorbidities of chronic disorders like diabetes.”

While Corona has taught us to live with new norms, Dr Singh said, it has also given the physicians a cue to emphasise on the non-pharmacological methods of management including hygiene etc which had somehow lost due importance in recent years. He noted, even after the COVID pandemic is over, the discipline of social distancing and avoiding droplet infection will act as a safeguard against many other infections as well.