Coronavirus: pneumonia mortality rates for diabetics remain troubling, study shows, as Hong Kong’s first fatality confirmed to have disease

Study in the spotlight following revelations that first coronavirus fatalities in Hong Kong and Guangdong province both suffered from diabetes

Experts call for youths to undergo early screening as findings show sharp dip in elderly mortality rates but almost none for younger diabetics

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A new study shows that while mortality rates for cardiovascular disease and cancer have dropped among diabetics, the same is not true for phneumonia. Photo: Shutterstock

Published: 11:30am, 10 Feb 2020Updated: 11:24pm, 10 Feb 2020

While mortality rates for a number of diseases have dropped sharply among diabetics in recent years, those rates have remained stubbornly static for pneumonia, new research shows, a key concern given the deadly coronavirus’ links to the lung condition.

The study, conducted by experts from the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the University of Edinburgh, was put into the spotlight this week by the revelation that the city’s first recorded coronavirus death – a 39-year-old man who died on Tuesday – suffered from diabetes.

Only days later, the epidemic’s first fatality in Guangdong province was also revealed to be a long-time diabetes patient.

Prof Juliana Chan, one of the researchers on a new study that shows pneumonia death rates among Hong Kong’s diabetic community have failed to decline alongside rates for conditions like heart disease. Photo: handout

Published in the European medical journal Diabetologia last month, the new study analysed Hong Kong public hospital data of 770,078 diabetic patients aged 20 or above across a 15-year period from 2001 to 2016.

Of the 185,082 deaths recorded in the period, mortality rates for all causes of death among men and women with diabetes dropped 52.3 and 53.5 per cent respectively, something researchers attributed to improved medical care and higher awareness of the disease.