US pharmacies authorized to test for coronavirus

Washington: The US authorized pharmacies on Wednesday to carry out tests for the coronavirus, including newly developed antibody tests that detect whether a person who has recovered from illness had COVID-19. Health secretary Alex Azar, announced that all tests approved by regulators could be carried out by pharmacies as the country seeks to ramp up its testing efforts."The Trump Administration is pleased to give pharmacists the chance to play a bigger role in the COVID-19 response, alongside all of Americas heroic healthcare workers," he said....read more

COVIDENCES - What PPE is effective, and who should be using it? (PPR Part 10)

(Source: DHS Science and Technology, Master Question List for COVID-19 (caused by SARS-CoV-2), Weekly Report, 18 March 2020)What PPE is effective, and who should be using it?What is known?The effectiveness of PPE for SARS-CoV-2 is currently not clearly understood; SARS is used as a surrogate....read more

CMAAO Corona Facts and Myth Buster 42

Viral load: Dr Edward Parker of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine has explained how high viral load can impact humans.He stated that when a virus infects us, it replicates in our body’s cells. The total amount of virus present inside a person is referred to as their ‘viral load’. For COVID-19, early reports from China suggested that the viral load is higher in patients with more severe disease, which is also noted for SARS and influenza....read more

Importance of silence

True silence is the silence between the thoughts and represents the true self, consciousness or the soul. It is a web of energized information ready to take all, provided there is a right intent. Meditation is the process of achieving silence. Observing silence is another way of deriving benefits of meditation. Many yogis in the past have recommended and observed silence now and then. Mahatma Gandhi spent one day in silence every week. He believed that abstaining from speaking brought him inner peace and happiness. On all such days, he communicated with others only by writing on paper....read more

Health Sutras By Dr K K Aggarwal

Social distancing

Healthcare News Monitor

Coronavirus impact: Can India afford to export Hydroxychloroquine?

Business Today- Anwesha Madhukalya

Rising global demand for anti-malarial drug Hydroxychloroquine for treatment of coronavirus patients has turned the attention to India which supplies 80-85 per cent of the drugs global demand. India recently agreed to export HCQ to the US and Brazil after requests from their Presidents. But with cases spiking in India, the question remains if India produces enough to meet exports without compromising on domestic needs. HYDROXYCHLOROQUINE PRODUCTION IN INDIA: To begin with, India currently produces 10 metric tonnes (MT) that is estimated to be increased to 40 MT by the end of the month. Indian pharmaceutical companies are raising production capacity further to meet the demand for Hydroxychloroquine. By next month, the production is set to rise to 70 MT. When producing at peak capacity, India would be able to produce 35 crore of Hydroxychloroquine tablets of 200 mg every month. However, Indias total demand is unlikely to exceed 10 crore tablets, for which the government has already placed order with manufacturers. Industry experts believe that 10 crore tablets can treat 7 crore people. However, only people who will be safe from the side-effects of Hydroxychloroquine will be given the drug to combat coronavirus. The remaining 25 crore tablets are likely to be exported to other countries. As of now the US, Spain, Italy, France, Germany and some of Indias neighbouring countries are seeking Hydroxychloroquine.

India can meet global HCQ demand with domestic: Ipca

ET Healthworld- Rupali Mukherjee

Ipca Labs has said there is a large supply of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), the much-touted drug being used for treating certain Covid-19 patients, with the capacity in India built for global markets besides meeting the country’s demand. The Mumbaibased pharmaceutical company is one of the two largest manufacturers of HCQ. Ipca is not part of the US supply line at present due to logistical issues, but hopes to catch up soon in about a month’s time. It is, for now, helping the Indian government to build its buffer stock of 10 crore dosages, and an additional 3-4 crore dosages for state governments. The cost of producing the drug “is moving up with certain solvents and chemicals used in it more than doubling”. “But we will absorb them,” says Ipca Labs joint MD A K Jain, adding the hit on margins will be minimal with large volumes being sold. “We have a completely integrated plant with key starting materials and raw materials (APIs), and we are ramping up production to 26 metric tonnes over the next one and a half months. A greenfield plant cannot be set up to meet the demand. So, we are identifying and sorting the bottlenecks. We will be adding additional packing lines at the same facility where HCQ is manufactured, ordering additional machine parts (for filtration and reactors) and excipients, and getting the government’s clearances required for any proposed increase,” he told TOI.

MP doctor dies of COVID-19, first such case in India

The New Indian Express

In a first, a doctor succumbed to COVID-19 in India. A 61-year-old general physician on Thursday died while battling coronavirus at a private hospital in Indore on Thursday. He was undergoing treatment for past five days, Indore district chief medical and health officer (CMHO) Dr Pravin Jadia told The New Indian Express. Indore has so far reported death of 22 COVID-19 patients, the highest in the state which has seen 28 such cases. On Wednesday, six virus-infected people had died in that city. Meanwhile, a general physician and his wife tested positive for coronavirus along with four others. The couple is being treated at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Bhopal. It is noteworthy to mention that over 40 of the 90-odd positive patients in Bhopal are health workers. An additional SP-rank IPS officer and a police Sub- Inspector are also among the positive cases in the MP capital. On Wednesday evening, MP Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had ordered total sealing of Indore, Bhopal and Ujjain districts and directed that no one would be allowed to enter or leave these districts. The day also saw five more coronavirus cases including four men from Karnataka. All of them, found in a mosque in Khandwa district, had reportedly attended the Tablighi Jamaat event which took place in Delhi. Curfew was subsequently imposed in entire communally sensitive Khandwa town.

Argentinian doctor stuck in India extends help to stranded nationals

Financial Express

When Oncologist, surgeon, and expert in Ayurvedic medicine, Sergio Lais Suárez travelled to Delhi on March 19, he was not prepared to be stranded in India. Due to the cancellation of flights, he could not travel back to his country month-end. He is also the Honorary Consul General of India in Córdoba. Stuck in a hotel in New Delhi, he met several other travellers from his country who were in a similar situation and they were all very anxious. The doctor in his encouraged him to start a health check-up camp for his countrymen and other foreigners who were stranded in New Delhi and needed help. On how did he get this idea to help, Lais Suárez told Financial Express Online, “In the hotel, where I was doing the quarantine/confinement, I noticed that there were people from Argentina, Mexico, the Netherlands, etc. who asked questions about their health when they found out that I was a doctor. First, I organised a talk for those who were in the hotel on topics related to wellness and health. Several questions and doubts arose from this talk about how to prevent diseases and what controls are needed, etc.” Then, he designed the Medical Control sheet printed a form in English and Spanish and from April 4 he started helping the foreign passengers and also for the employees of the hotel of Indian nationality. “I created a protocol for medical control of coronavirus: every day along with a team, we check their temperature, oxygen saturation, listen to their lungs and hearts, check their throats and take their pressure,” he says.