Diabetes is emerging as an important factor in the severity of disease for people suffering from COVID-19, though why this may be is not well understood.
Dr Kirsty Short (pictured left) and Dr Helen Barrett (pictured right) are leading a study—The role of diabetes on severity of illness and outcomes following COVID-19—and are seeking your help to better understand and discover what changes can be made for COVID-19 recovery. The study team need people with and without diabetes to help them compare how diabetes changes COVID-19 response.
“The study aims to determine if diabetes alters the duration and severity of COVID-19, and seeks to identify future immunity to the virus that causes COVID-19. To do this, we need the help of people like you, with and without diabetes,” Dr Short said.
“Antibodies are a sign that your body has fought, or is fighting, an infection. They are specific for particular viruses and although they last in your blood for some time, we are unsure at this stage if after six months they exist anymore.”
Dr Barrett added, “As we currently don’t know how long the antibodies for COVID-19 last in people, with or without diabetes, your participation will mean the difference in identifying and creating a timeframe in real time.
“As well as discovering how long antibodies last [for COVID-19], we hope that this research will shed some real light on how to help those already diagnosed with diabetes, to ensure the risk of diagnosis is low, in the near future.”
Dr Short and Dr Barrett are also interested in how underlying conditions, such as cardiovascular health and diabetes, can impact the duration and severity of your illness. As part of the study, they will conduct standard blood tests—commonly done for patients with diabetes—while also looking at other markers of cardiovascular health.
Anyone who has been diagnosed with, and recovered from, COVID-19 in the last six months is encouraged to participate in the study.
What’s involved? The donation of your time, blood and urine samples.
To find out how you can participate, please contact the team by email at Covid.DiabetesStudy@mater.org.au.