Gilead looks to make Remdesivir available globally

Mumbai | New Delhi: Gilead Science Inc has said it is working to build a global consortium of pharmaceutical and chemical manufacturers in North America, Europe and Asia to expand global capacity and production of remdesivir, the drug that has shown a shortening of recovery time for Covid-19 patients.In India, people familiar with the development said the company is in discussions with Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, Cipla, Jubilant Lifesciences, and Strides Pharmaceuticals for granting them voluntary licences for manufacturing the drug....read more

CMAAO Coronavirus Facts and Myth Buster 81

Density of population has a direct association with the number of COVID-19 positive cases. The chances of infection spreading are greater in densely populated areas. But, a place can have dense population, yet people can isolate, work remotely and practice social distancing. Density of population becomes a risk factor for spread of infection where people live in close confined spaces and therefore are in close contact with one another. Social distancing becomes more difficult or practically impossible in such places....read more

CMAAO Coronavirus Facts and Myth Buster 80

With regular inputs from Dr Monica Vasudev766: Dear KK: From Professor Russell Franco DSouzaThanks to 50 autopsies carried out on patients who died from COVID-19, scientists found that:1.Strictly speaking It is NOT PNEUMONIA. The virus does not only kill pneumocytes but also uses an inflammatory storm to create an endothelial diffuse vascular thrombosis....read more

Do unto yourselves what you do to God

1.There are two types of people – those who believe in Dvaita or Advaita philosophy.2.People who believe in Dvaita philosophy, for them God and human being are different.3.The people who believe in Advaita philosophy believe that God is within them.4.In Hinduism, the first group believes in Sanatan Dharma and does Moorti pooja (idol worship) and the second Arya Samaj, which does not believe in Moorti pooja. ....read more

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Does plasma therapy work? | India Today Insight

India Today- Sonali Acharjee

Covid changes your approach to life,” says Arjun Khanna (name changed), who recovered from the disease a few weeks ago. He says he can never forget the fear he felt after testing positive. Now he wants to do all he can to help in the fight against Covid-19. And one way he is doing it is by donating the plasma from his blood. Khanna was one of the first donors to have his plasma harvested at SMS Hospital in Jaipur. It will be administered to one of the three patients eligible for plasma therapy at the hospital on May 2. The first patient is a doctor from the hospital, whose symptoms have taken a turn for the worse. He had been on ventilator support last week, and has since been shifted to an ICU but still has reports of breathlessness, falling oxygen saturation, lung lesions, while his tests for cytokine markers are positive. If successful, the plasma harvested from Khanna could save his life. “To put it in lay terms, blood consists of plasma, red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets--plasma is the liquid part of your blood which carries cells. Only the plasma is used for treatment. It is still in the early stages and being given only to critical cases under close watch. In the next few weeks, we will start to get a better understanding,” says Dr Sanjiv Bhandari, principal of SMS Hospital, which received approval from the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) to conduct plasma treatment on April 31. Blood plasma therapy harvests plasma from recovered Covid patients, two weeks after they test negative for the virus. A two-week gap is maintained to ensure the virus does not remain in the blood. Blood is then taken through the vein, the plasma separated through a machine and only the blood cells returned to the donor. It is a pain-free procedure. The plasma from the recovered person has IgG antibodies that would have built up against Covid-19, and could help a second patient’s immune system build antibodies against the virus. At present, this is only being done globally for severe patients, usually those on ventilator support, as the long-term impact and safety of the treatment is yet to be determined. On April 18, ICMR received approval from the DCGI (Drug Controller General of India) to start human trials of the therapy.

Non-COVID-19 Patients Are Paying the Price of India’s Efforts Against the Coronavirus

The Wire- Pratyush Singh

As the emaciated Indian healthcare system attempts to break the tide of the novel coronavirus pandemic, perhaps the highest cost for this fight is borne by the non-COVID-19 patients. For close to a month now, OPD and non-emergency services have been stopped in several hospitals so that all resources are diverted for combatting COVID-19 and emergency medical care. However, as the coronavirus containment enters its second month, the ‘temporary’ pause could be detrimental for many non-COVID-19 patients. Thousands of patients from less developed states visited tertiary care hospitals in metropolitan cities, before the lockdown, to seek healthcare. Their fate hangs by a fine thread now. As confirmed by several media reports, reduced access to both out-patient and hospitalisation services is proving to be fatal for several non-coronavirus patients; both communicable and non-communicable. With Kerala being an outlier, Indian public health system, which is weakened to its core due to chronic underfunding and overarching neglect, finds itself incapacitated to fight a global pandemic and not abdicate other responsibilities in the process. While we fight the novel coronavirus, we must ensure that the price to be paid is not with the lives of non-COVID patients – that fight would be immoral and not worth waging. Although systemised reporting of data is hindered by the lockdown, individual news reports show that patients suffering from non-COVID-19 diseases, patients with scheduled surgical procedures and follow-up visits are undergoing an unimaginable crisis – the impact of which is compounded for patients needing hospitalised care. In a country with 5.5 government beds for 10,000 population, even a marginal increase in hospitalisation will increases the pressure on the system exponentially.

Mumbai doctor booked for sexual assault of coronavirus patient

India Today- Mustafa Shaikh

34-year-old doctor has been booked for allegedly sexually assaulting a 44-year-old male patient of novel coronavirus admitted in the ICU ward of a private hospital in Mumbai. The accused, an MD, had joined the hospital a day before of the alleged incident took place at the private hospital in Mumbai Central area. The case is of inappropriate touching, a senior police official has said. Acting on the complaint by the hospital, the Mumbai Police registered a case against the doctor. Police said the accused doctor has not been arrested yet since he was in contact with a coronavirus positive patient. Instead, the doctor doctor has been placed in quarantine at his home. A call on his arrest will be taken after quarantine period, police said. The hospital said the doctor, who had joined a day before the alleged incident took place, has been sacked. “The doctor was on his first day of duty, having joined on previous day. Following the receipt of information of misconduct and as per protocol, the administration immediately informed the police. The services of the doctor were terminated,” the hospital said in a statement.

"Alcoholics Turning To Sanitisers During Lockdown": Madhya Pradesh Doctor

NDTV- PTI

The closure of liquor vends due to the lockdown for the coronavirus outbreak has made some alcoholics in Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh reportedly turn to sanitisers to satisfy their craving, though most officials dismissed it claiming they were unaware of such incidents. Most sanitisers available in the market have a high content of alcohol but consuming it can cause ethanol poisoning and complications that could lead to coma and death. "I have come across this trend of alcoholics turning to sanitisers during the lockdown and risking their lives. Recently, I treated an 18-year-old girl who consumed it, though she claimed she had taken it by mistake," said Bhopal-based Siddhanta Red Cross Super Specialty Hospital Director Dr Subodh Varshney. "Sanitisers being produced by liquor distillers have ethyl alcohol and hydrogen peroxide, which is a very toxic combination. In fact, there is double the amount of alcohol in them than what is there in a whiskey bottle," he said. He said three types of sanitisers are being manufactured at the moment, but some people are consuming the ones being made by liquor distillers, as these contain "edible alcohol". On Saturday, a man identified as Indal Singh Rajput, was held in Sultanpur area of Raisen district in the state for allegedly making liquor from sanitisers to profiteer from the closure of alcohol vends during the lockdown, police had said.