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MONDAY, Aug. 31, 2020 (HealthDay News)<\/p>\n
Parents worry that COVID-19<\/a> can make a diabetic child’s condition worse, but an expert has some tips for keeping kids healthy during the pandemic.<\/p>\n “If a child has good control of their diabetes<\/a>, it does not seem as though there will be severe effects if they were to get the virus,” said Dr. Michael Yafi, an associate professor of pediatric endocrinology at McGovern Medical School at University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.<\/p>\n “However, children with poorly controlled diabetes<\/a> are at a high risk of becoming severely ill if they were to get the virus,” Yafi said in a university news release.<\/p>\n High blood sugar<\/a> levels can weaken the immune system, making it harder for people with diabetes<\/a> to fend off infections like COVID-19<\/a>, he explained.<\/p>\n “The exact cause of severe outcomes in patients with diabetes<\/a> and COVID-19<\/a> is not yet known, but research suggests that people who have diabetes<\/a> have weakened immune systems, which can impact their ability to quickly heal from an infection or disease,” Yafi said.<\/p>\n He offered these tips to parents to help reduce their child’s risk:<\/p>\n Because COVID-19<\/a> affects the body in many ways, there are concerns that it may cause patients to develop diabetes, Yafi said. “However, that is still to be determined because we do not have any global epidemiological information about the association between diabetes and previous COVID-19<\/a> infection,” he added.<\/p>\n — Steven Reinberg<\/p>\n\n
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