Why COVID-19 is killing US diabetics at alarming rates

Devon Brumfield could hear her father gasping for breath on the phone.

Darrell Cager Sr, 64, had diabetes. So his youngest daughter urged him to seek care. The next day, he collapsed and died in his New Orleans home.

The daughter soon learned the cause: acute respiratory distress from COVID-19. His death certificate noted diabetes as an underlying condition. Brumfield, who lives in Texas and also has type 2 diabetes, is “terrified” she could be next.

“I’m thinking, Lord, this could happen to me,” she said of her father’s death in late March.

She has good reason to fear. As US outbreaks surge, a new government study shows that nearly 40 per cent of people who have died with COVID-19 had diabetes. Among deaths of those under 65, half had the chronic condition. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention analysed more than 10,000 deaths in 15 states and New York City from February to May. Jonathan Wortham, a CDC epidemiologist who led the study, called the findings “extremely striking,” with serious implications for those with diabetes and their loved ones.

A separate Reuters survey of states found a similarly high rate of diabetes among people dying from COVID-19 in 12 states and the District of Columbia. Ten states, including California, Arizona and Michigan, said they weren’t yet reporting diabetes and other underlying conditions, and the rest did not respond — rendering an incomplete picture for policymakers and clinicians struggling to protect those most atrisk.

America’s mortality rates from diabetes have been climbing since 2009 and exceed most other industrialised nations. Blacks and Latinos suffer from diabetes at higher rates than whites and have disproportionately suffered from COVID-19. — Reuters