COVID-19 and children with diabetes: emerging knowledge

The global epidemiological and clinical patterns of COVID-19 among children with diabetes are still very limited. In this report Associate Professor May Ng investigates the current outcome data for young people with diabetes and COVID-19 and discusses the need for continued vigilance to ensure emergency paediatric conditions are dealt with urgently, as well as the essential health messages for young people with diabetes. 

In March 2020, the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak a pandemic and a public health emergency of international concern. A study of 1099 patients from China with laboratory- confirmed symptomatic COVID-19, caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) reported that the most common symptoms of COVID-19 were fever and cough, with a median incubation period of four days.1 Emerging research has now reported that the clinical spectrum of COVID-19 can be very variable from mild flu-like symptoms, to rash, blood disorders, pneumonia, acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), respiratory failure, cardiac conditions, multiple organ failure and death.