Diabetes, heart patients must exercise extra caution against coronavirus: PGI doctors

Patients of diabetes, hypertension and heart diseases must exercise extra caution to protect themselves from coronavirus, senior doctors at the Sanjay Gandhi PGI here said on Monday.

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Though such patients are more susceptible to COVID-19 virus, they must not rush to get themselves tested unless they have symptoms or have come in contact with active cases of coronavirus.

These patients can, however, follow certain extra precautionary measures to keep themselves healthy and avoid getting coronavirus infection, the doctors said.

"Patients with uncontrolled diabetes and whose three-month average HbA1c blood sugar level is more than 7.5 should be extra careful as they are more susceptible," said Prof (Dr) Sushil Gupta of the department of endocrinology, SGPGI.

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If such patients get infection, it will be difficult for them to survive, he told PTI.

Moreover, those suffering from diabetes and heart ailments have very poor resistance power, said Prof (Dr) Sudeep Kumar of the department of cardiology, SGPGI.

He said these patients must never miss their regular dose of medicines and get their blood pressure and sugar levels tested timely otherwise they will expose themselves to the deadly virus.

They cautioned that patients above the age of 60 are likely to fall easy prey to the virus.

At present eight coronavirus patients are undergoing treatment at the Sanjay Gandhi Post-Graduate Institute here.