 Hello! We are going to talk about coronavirus and diabetes today. I know you guys with diabetes are wondering what to do with this coronavirus. I've been getting a lot of patients in my practice as well regarding coronavirus. And we are going to talk about what coronavirus is and how to avoid getting coronavirus. And if you do get a coronavirus, really what you should do as a diabetic. Now number one is a diabetic. You are really at high risk for coronavirus. So basically what you need to do is stay away from the public areas that you have close contact with people. Moreover, if you are handshaking try not to, but if you do make sure you have frequent hand washing. Hand washing techniques are very important as well. If you are just washing the palm of your hand and you are avoiding the back of your hand that may be a problem. So try to pay attention to wash your hand thoroughly. And try to disinfect the areas that other people may be touching, especially in metro areas where there's a lot of traffic. And try to keep a distance from other people who especially may have signs of sickness. So if you can try to keep your personal hygiene and try to keep yourself away from people, especially people that you do not know, that may be a good step to start. Coronavirus can be contagious even when patients are asymptomatic. And then you may end up getting symptoms two to 14 days after exposure. So what do you do really after you get a coronavirus? So hopefully you never get it by avoiding the problem. However, if you do get it, you need to first of all self quarantine yourself. Make sure that you do not go to work. Make sure that you do not go outside of your house unless it's absolutely necessary. Make sure you wear a mask so you do not actually infect other people. And tight fitting masks are generally more helpful. But but also the contact can happen through the eyes as well. So you have to pay attention to wearing some eye protection as well. Now you do not need to wear a mask and eye protection just to try to get protected from the disease. But if you have it, you should wear it so that you do not infect other people. But also it is more recommended to stay isolated so you do not really have any contact with other people. Again, the disease spreads very quickly. It tends to affect people with chronic conditions like diabetes. As a result, if you have diabetes, you may be at high risk of getting the disease. And God forbid dying from the disease is also highly likely. Now if you have travel plans, I would recommend to postpone those plans at least until this problem goes away. It may not happen in the next few months. So maybe delay your your travel plans for at least around six months or so to be on the safe side, especially if you're going for a cruise. If you are traveling by airplane, you should definitely halt your plans. In terms of driving around, I think you're still safe. However, I would not go to areas that you do not know about the coronavirus situation. And I would definitely do not go into public places where a lot of people cluster together since you cannot really avoid staying away from people coughing and sneezing and so forth. The symptoms are generally coughing. It could be fever. And if you have a fever, you will really feel run down and it's gonna feel like flu. And the symptoms of coronavirus actually is worse than the flu. And the death rate is more than the flu. So as a result, if you feel like you are having any sort of cold symptoms, you don't have to have a fever. I think you should isolate yourself, get tested if you can get tested for coronavirus. It is becoming more and more available. But I think as a patient with diabetes, your priority is to avoid getting a disease. And if you do have the disease, make sure you stay at home, hydrate yourself. Make sure you rest. Try not to work. And then if your symptoms get worse, you start getting shortness of breath and productive cough and so forth. You should definitely go to hospital. If you are running a fever, there's another indication for you to go to the hospital. These things can go to your lungs, can turn into pneumonia and can turn into septic shock. And that's how these people tend to die from coronavirus. People with diabetes and other chronic health conditions have suppressed immune system and are more prone to be defeated to the coronavirus. So if you guys have any questions, concerns, please let us know. And I hope you can pass the season with no problems. Don't panic. Just stay with the faith and your hygiene. Stay away from other people with possible symptoms. If you know somebody who had coronavirus that you had a contact with, it may not be a bad idea at all to isolate yourself, even if you're not symptomatic at the time. Now, also one more last thing, if you have diabetes and you have coronavirus, your body will start creating stress response. You may have a lot of internal steroids running in your system, or your doctor may prescribe steroids whatever the reason it may be, the stress in your body will cause high blood sugars. For type one diabetics, that means that you need to monitor your blood sugars more often, monitor your ketones if your blood sugars are running high and stay hydrated. That's very important. For patients with type two diabetes, you still need to monitor your blood sugars. And if it's going high, if you're on insulin with type two diabetes, you may want to use more insulin at consult with your doctor to see how much more insulin you may need. Again, monitoring for ketones is necessary for type two, if the blood sugars are going really, really high, about 400-500. For type one diabetics, that is about 250 blood sugar. But for type two diabetics, I think you just start monitoring your ketones if it is more than 400-500. And you should not be staying at 400-500 levels. So please contact your endocrinologist or diabetes specialist to make sure that your blood sugar is under control immediately. If you do not have a sliding scale insulin or any other medication that can bring your blood sugars down very quickly, then if you are not able to get your doctor on time, you may want to go to ER before it's too late as well. Again, remember, when you are sick from any condition, doesn't have to be coronavirus, your body may need more medication, more insulin if you're on insulin in order to control your blood sugars. And everybody responds the same. If your appetite goes down so much that you don't eat anything, that may also cause low blood sugars, especially if you're on certain agents that can trigger a low blood sugar. So the bottom line is monitoring more often at least four or five times a day will give you at least an idea about where you're standing in terms of your blood sugars. Again, thank you for watching. And I hope you can pass the season with health and happiness.