Potential drug target against coronavirus infection identified

According to the study, published in the journal Cell, the virus has been spreading since December 2019, and is closely related to the SARS coronavirus that caused the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome pandemic in 2002-2003. It noted that currently no vaccines or drugs are available to combat these viruses.

BERLIN: Researchers have identified a protein present in the human body which they claim is important for the entry of the novel coronavirus into lung cells, an advance that may lead to a novel drug target for preventing the deadly disease. The researchers, including those from Deutsches Primatenzentrum in Germany, said the new coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, has spread worldwide, causing respiratory disease called COVID-19 in people -- leading to over 3,000 deaths, and infecting more than 90,000 individuals. ....read more

SARS COV 2 cases crosses one lac, India does not have a super spreader?

Scenario India: 31 cases in India (17 outside India) Delhi Noida Gurugram Agra Jaipur Kerala Ghaziabad (5 states) 28 active cases Serious none Two clusters (driver + 16 Italians Jaipur, 1 Delhi + 6 relatives Agra), 1 Ghaziabad, 3 cured in Kerala, 1 Gurugram PTM employee, 1 Telangana, 1 Delhi....read more

Medtalks around the globe on COVID 19

1.Critics are calling for the resignation of Japan’s longest-serving Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, for his handling of the country’s outbreak.

2.Japan is struggling to cope with widespread testing for the virus that has been limited to 900 patients per day whereas neighboring countries are testing up to 10,000 daily.

3.Italy reported 41 new coronavirus deaths on Thursday, a big jump in the toll there (now 148 overall). ....read more

COVID-19 mortality is 3.4%

6th March: CMAAO Update COVID-19 - SARS-CoV-2 India: 30 cases so far; Delhi, Noida, Gurugram, Agra, Jaipur, Kerala, Ghaziabad (5 states), 26 active cases, serious none, two clusters (driver + 16 Italians in Jaipur, 1 in Delhi + 6 relatives in Agra), 1 in Ghaziabad, 3 cured, 1 in Gurugram Paytm employee, 1 in Telangana, no community spread....read more

Spiritual Prescriptions: Satsang

Satsang is a common household word. Satsangs are often held in many residential colonies. Traditionally, Satsang means the regular meeting of a group of elderly or women of an area with a common intention of attaining inner happiness or peace through Bhajans or devotional songs for a particular God or Gods. People attending a Satsang realize that it is the Self, communing with Self....read more

Corona prevention on today’s date

How Corona Aware Are You

Health Sutras By Dr K K Aggarwal

You can dispose of e-waste by returning the product to the manufacturer, taking the item to a professional waste disposal facility or donating them to a NGO or someone who needs them if they are in a working condition.

Healthcare News Monitor

Centre wants to set up API parks, mulls reviving PSU bulk drug units

The New Indian Express- Jayanta Roy Chowdhury

The Centre wants to set up parks that will manufacture pharma raw materials currently imported from China, while sections within the government also want sick state-run pharma units, specialised in manufacturing active pharma ingredients, to be revived. According to top officials, to promote domestic API manufacturing the government could lift price controls on drugs made from domestic bulk drug raw materials. India is dependant on China for some 70 per cent of its API supplies and the current Coronavirus scare, which has seen imports from China stopped, has underlined India’s supply vulnerability. Nearly 40-odd APIs have been identified whose production the government wants to encourage, officials said. While incentives will be offered to bulk drug manufacturers to scale up their production, sections within the chemicals and fertilizer ministry want the two sick PSUs – Indian Drugs & Pharmaceuticals Ltd and Hindustan Antibiotics Ltd – to be revived instead of being sold off or shut down as was earlier planned. "We can rope in private investors and do the job of revival or use incentives which we will anyway pay out to encourage API manufacturers coupled with sale of land banks etc. to work out a revival package," said officials. Officials said the government has plans to set up API parks in states like Himachal Pradesh, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Assam. India imported APIs worth $2.5 billion in 2018-19 from China. The raw material feeds medicine manufactured for both the domestic market as well as India’s $19.14 billion pharma exports business.

India to form Pharma Bureau to support Govt & Industry

Bio Spectrum

The Department of Pharmaceuticals, under the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers, Government of India, has announced the launch of Pharma Bureau- a body of technical experts, which will act as a single-point interface for the pharmaceutical and medical devices industry for issues relating to the Government of India and various State Governments. The Bureau will coordinate with different ministries of the Central Government as well as the State Governments for providing solutions to the Industry in a time bound manner. In partnership with Invest India, the National Investment Promotion and Facilitation Agency that helps investors looking for investment opportunities and options in India, the Bureau will also help facilitate both foreign as well as domestic investment in the Pharmaceutical and Medical devices industry in India. The bureau will also act as a policy think tank to support the Government as well as the Industry.

India could ‘withdraw’ curbs on drug exports as pharma firms fear loss of business

The Print- Himani Chandna

With drug-makers ringing an alarm over the curbs imposed on the export of their products, the Narendra Modi government could soon “withdraw” the restrictions, ThePrint has learnt. A high-level standing committee formed last month by the government to monitor the shortages of API (active pharmaceutical ingredients) — raw material used to manufacture drugs — is preparing to send a recommendation to the Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP) to withdraw the export curbs. India had decided to impose restrictions on the export of 13 APIs and as many formulations made from these APIs as their supplies remained disrupted due to the continuing lockdown in coronavirus-hit China. The move came after the drug-makers — in a meeting organised by the DoP Thursday — informed top government officials that “the industry has enough stock available to continue production for next three months”. Union Minister of Chemical and Fertilizers D.V. Sadananda Gowda was present at the meeting. According to a DoP official, who attended the meeting, the drug-makers expressed their concern that “their clients may start buying products from other drug-exporting countries, like Bangladesh, if restrictions on Indian products continued”. The official, however, also added that several provinces in China have started resuming production of APIs.

87-year-old coronavirus patient watches sunset with doctor outside Wuhan hospital. Heartwarming pic

India Today

The coronavirus outbreak has caused 3,345 deaths, across 85 countries. In China alone, more than 80,000 cases of Covid-19 have been confirmed. Amid this global outbreak, a heartwarming photo from Wuhan, the epicenter of coronavirus, has surfaced on the internet. The picture shows an 87-year-old patient watching the sunset with his doctor outside a hospital. The doctor was taking the patient for a CT scan when he asked the elderly man if he wanted to stop and watch the sunset. The patient said yes, and then both of them enjoyed the moment. A Twitter user with the handle @chenchenzh shared the picture of the endearing moment. "Wuhan Uni hospital. A twenty-something doctor from Shanghai was taking an 87-year-old patient whod been hospitalised for a month to take a CT scan. He asked if he wanted to stop to watch the sunset. He said yes. They enjoyed the moment together," the caption read. The photograph is being widely circulated on social media and netizens are in awe of it. "Human kind is so beautiful," a Twitter user commented. "Fav pic of the day," wrote another user. In another incident, a video of two Chinese medical attendants dancing in front of a hospital to celebrate recovery of several patients from Covid-19 also went viral on social media.