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Medical Voice 12th March 2020

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Dr KK Aggarwal    12 March 2020

100-year-old Chinese man recovers from coronavirus

According to Xinhua, the centenarian patient was discharged on Saturday from a hospital in Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak.

Wuhan [CHINA]: A 100-year-old Chinese man has fully recovered from the novel coronavirus, making him the oldest known patient to beat the deadly virus, state media reported on Sunday.

According to Xinhua, the centenarian patient was discharged on Saturday from a hospital in Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak....read more

COVID-19 unlikely to behave like 1918 Spanish flu

COVID-19 is more lethal than the seasonal flu. But there are no signs it will be as catastrophic as the worst pandemic the 1918 Spanish flu.

The 1918 flu is the quintessential pandemic, estimated to have killed 50 million people worldwide. Although it occurred in an era before international air travel, its movement around the globe was facilitated by troops fighting in World War I. It went around the world four times in one year when there were no airplanes. That’s what it means to spread like wildfire....read more

CMAAO Message to all National Medical Associations as COVID-19 surpassing 100 000

The world-wide number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 has exceeded 100 000. ACMAAO reminds all NMAs that the spread of this virus can be significantly slowed or even reversed through the implementation of robust containment and control activities.

1.China and other countries are representing that spread of the virus can be slowed and its impact can be reduced through the use of universally applicable actions, such as identify people who are sick, getting them to care, following up on contacts, preparing hospitals and clinics to manage a rise in infected patients, and also training health workers....read more

Drinking alcohol CAN NOT protect you from coronavirus?

Alcohol drinking can neither protect a person from coronavirus nor it can kill the deadly virus. Spraying alcohol or chlorine on your body will not kill viruses that have entered your body already. On the contrary spraying such substances can be harmful to clothes or eyes and mouth. ....read more

The Vedic meaning of Mahamritunjaya Mantra and the Gayatri Mantra

Any activity should always engage the 3 H model of the Heart, the Head, and the Hand. The same has been advocated by the western scholars of today. The concept involves that while doing any work, one should ask the head for choices and then refer these choices to the heart to choose one and finally order the hands to carry out that action....read more

How Corona Aware Are You

Health Sutras By Dr K K Aggarwal

Do not ignore early morning chest pain as most heart attack deaths occur in the early morning.

Healthcare News Monitor

Govt mulls lifting pharma export curbs as industry voices concern

The Times of India- Sushmi Dey

assured of availability of adequate stocks of medicines to cater to local demand at least till May-June. In the wake of the Covid-19 outbreak in China — a major supplier of drug raw material or active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) — the Directorate General of Foreign Trade had “restricted” export of 13 specified APIs, and formulations containing these, from India with immediate effect through a notification on March3. Senior representatives from major pharmaceutical firms along with industry associations had raised concerns about the move. On Monday, at a meeting with the expert panel set up to look into availability of medicines in the wake of the viral outbreak, the industry assured the government of “enough stocks”. In a written submission reviewed by TOI, the industry said that in case of any unexpected shortage “all production and sale of APIs and formulations will be restricted to domestic consumption”

India could avert medicine shortage as bulk drugs start arriving from coronavirus-hit China

The Print- Himani Chandna

India can now avert a shortage of medicines as essential raw materials required for drug production have started arriving in India from coronavirus-hit China, ThePrint has learnt. An industry official working with a Mumbai-based pharma company, which is expecting its shipments through water soon, told ThePrint that both the active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and key starting materials (KSMs) have started arriving from the water routes. “It’s good news as there will be no shortages in the production of medicines due to disruption in supplies through China,” he said. APIs, also known as bulk drugs, are chemical compounds that are the most important raw material to produce a finished medicine. In medicine, API produces the intended effects to cure the disease. For instance, Paracetamol is the API for Crocin that gives relief from body aches and fever. Krishna Prasad Chigurupati, chairman and managing director of Granules India, the country’s leading producer of APIs, told CNBC-TV18, “We have inventory for another 10 days but materials are arriving. So, there could be a gap of about 2-3 days without inventory but the shipments are already on the water and we should be getting them by next week. So, I don’t see any issue with inventories as well.” Granules India is a major supplier of Paracetamol in India.

Top Coronavirus doctor in Wuhan says high blood pressure is major death risk

Hindustan Times 

Patients with hypertension appear to be at a higher risk of dying from the coronavirus, said a top Chinese intensive care doctor who’s been treating critically ill patients since mid-January. While there’s been no published research yet explaining why, Chinese doctors working in Wuhan, the central Chinese city where the virus first emerged, have noticed that infected patients with that underlying illness are more likely to slip into severe distress and die. Of a group of 170 patients who died in January in Wuhan -- the first wave of casualties caused by a pathogen that’s now raced around the world -- nearly half had hypertension. “That’s a very high ratio,” said Du Bin, director of the intensive care unit at Peking Union Medical College Hospital, in an interview with Bloomberg over the phone from Wuhan. He was among a team of top doctors sent to the devastated city two months ago to help treat patients there. “From what I was told by other doctors and the data I can see myself, among all the underlying diseases, hypertension is a key dangerous factor,” said Du, one of the most respected critical care experts in China. “Though there is no research published on that yet, we believe hypertension could be an important factor in causing patients to deteriorate, leading to a bad prognosis.” As the outbreak picks up speed in Europe and the U.S., plunging countries like Italy into crisis, doctors are struggling to treat the highly-infectious pathogen that’s infected over 108,000 people globally in just three months.

Coronavirus in India: Italian couple given anti-HIV drugs to treat the virus

Business Today 

The elderly Italian couple currently undergoing treatment for coronavirus (COVID-19) at a hospital in Jaipur have been administered a combination of two drugs, commonly used controlling HIV infection. This is the first time that this combination has been used to treat the deadly virus amid mounting cases in India. The Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) had approved the restricted use of the combination of medications-lopinavir and ritonavir, which are second-line HIV drugs, before they were administered to the elderly couple. The DCGI had given the approval after the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) had sought an emergency approval for using the drugs for treating COVID- 19. Dr S Meena, the Medical Superintendent of SMS Hospital, said that the decision to administer the combination of lopinavir and ritonavir was taken after the Italian man and his wife had developed severe respiratory problems. The Italian man, who himself is a doctor, is on oxygen support. Even before he acquired the infection, he had some respiratory issues. His condition had deteriorated and he developed severe respiratory problems after getting the coronavirus infection and thus was given these drugs. His condition is stable now. His wife is also doing better and she is taking care of her husband," Dr. Meena said. The combination of lopinavir and ritonavir along with other drugs have been used in clinical trials in China, where coronavirus first emerged, and Thailand for treating Covid-19 patients.

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