COVID-19 and non-communicable diseases
Rimesh Pal, Sanjay Kumar Bhadada
Abstract
Since December 2019, a novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has scourged the world, resulting in the WHO declaring it as a pandemic. As of 19 March 2020, COVID-19 has affected over 207 000 people in at least 166 countries worldwide, with most of the cases being reported from China and Europe. The absolute number of deaths has already surpassed 8500 globally and is expected to increase further as the disease spreads rapidly. The disease has also infiltrated the Indian masses and is spreading fast. Although the overall fatality rate of COVID-19 is low,1 older adults and patients with comorbidities are more likely to have severe disease and subsequent mortality. The most commonly reported non-communicable diseases that have been shown to predict poor prognosis in patients with COVID-19 include diabetes mellitus (DM), hypertension, cerebrovascular disease, coronary artery disease (CAD) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).1–4 Wang et al 4 reported that among the 26.1% of patients shifted to intensive care unit (ICU), 72.2% had concurrent comorbidities, as opposed to only 37.3% of patients who did not require ICU care. Yang and …