Covid and Diabetes: A Literature Review

Abstract

In December 2019, the WHO China Country office was informed of an outbreak of pneumonia of unknown etiology, in Wuhan city. The pathogen was later identified as a member of the β-coronaviridae family, and the disease it caused was named Covid-19. The outbreak rapidly evolved over the next few months to become a pandemic that resulted in drastic effects on global healthcare and economy. Diabetic patients were affected equally as non-diabetic individuals; however, the impact of the disease was much worse amongst them. We aim to briefly review the incidence and characteristics of Covid-19 infection among diabetic patients, elaborating into the pathophysiology of the disease and the possible mechanisms which may explain the severity of the disease amongst them, through a review of published articles in Pubmed, Google Scholar and Cochrane databases, till the first of January 2022.