Since the end of  Dec, 2019, a severe pneumonia of unknown epidemiology broke out in Wuhan. On Jan, 2020, the cause of the pneumonia was determined to be a novel coronavirus. The totally confirmed cases on the Chinese mainland had reached 74,282 by the end of Feb 19, and among them, 14,770 patients have been cured.

China has stepped up efforts to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus. A lot of the researches of the novel coronavirus has been obtained at the same time. According to Chinese journal of Epidemiology reported, by Feb 11, of 44,672 confirmed cases, 10.5% for patients with cardiovascular disease, diabetes (7.3%), hypertension (6.0%).

Large fluctuation blood glucose levels can weaken the diabetic's immune system defenses such as decrease the number of CD3+T cells, imbalance the ratio of CD4+/CD8+T cells, reduce the NKT cells activity. The guidelines on vaccine prevention and treatment of seasonal influenza issued by the (American) CDC & Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (2013-2014) pointed out that people with metabolic diseases (diabetes) are at high risk for epidemic. The previous guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of epidemic issued by the National Health Commission (2011 edition) indicated that patients with chronic disease are more likely to develop severe cases after infection with influenza.

Therefore, diabetics are susceptible to novel coronavirus infection.

The virus could cause a lasting damage to the human body, and diabetics, along with epidemic infection, could leads to uncontrollable hyperglycemia, which further exacerbates the infection, turned to a vicious circle eventually.

What’s worse, hypoglycemia is also a potentially serious complication of diabetes. If the harm of hyperglycemia is calculated in years, the harm of hypoglycemia has to be accounted in minutes.

In order to meet the needs of epidemic prevention, diabetics have to stay at home for a long time, outdoor activities are sharply decreased, and even along with irregular diet. These changes may increase blood glucose level fluctuations.

For T2DM patients, especially the older patients (over 70 years old), hypoglycemia is always accompanied by large blood glucose fluctuations, and increased blood glucose fluctuations could also lead to the asymptomatic hypoglycemia, severe hypoglycemia and nocturnal hypoglycemia.

Therefore, the key point of diabetes management during the novel coronavirus epidemic is to strengthen the education of diabetes patients, do a good job in self-protection at home, reduce the risk of infection as far as possible, and manage the blood glucose level well, stay a healthy diet and bedtime/rising time.

Limiting the movement of people, avoiding close contact with strangers, hand-washing/wearing masks at a high frequency can help curb the epidemic effectively.