IIT launches ‘world’s most affordable’ Covid-19 diagnostic kit

NEW DELHI: In its latest innovation to support the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi has created the “world’s most affordable” Covid-19 diagnostic kit. The institute has given licence to 10 companies to manufacture the diagnostic kits using the technology developed by its researchers.Corosure Kit, developed by IIT-Delhi, was launched by Union HRD minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ on Wednesday. He termed it as a “step towards Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision and exhortations to innovative youth to ensure a healthier and self-reliant India.” ,The kit has received approval from both ICMR and DCGI. ,Pokhriyal said that this affordable detection kit will help the country amid the ongoing crisis. It will also bring down the cost of Covid-19 RT-PCR testing, he added. ....read more

CMAAO Coronavirus Facts and Myth Buster: Around the globe

With inputs from Dr Monica Vasudev976: Good news: So far, there has been no documented outbreak of COVID-19 in the U.S. that can be traced to a dental office, states the American Dental Association.977: The SARS-CoV-2 IgG assay has been found to have a sensitivity and specificity of 0.976 and 0.988, respectively, when the test is performed at least 14 days after onset of symptoms. If the tests were done earlier, the sensitivity was found to be lower. The IgG levels continued to remain high up to 58 days. Levels of antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 were shown to be correlated to the risk for acute respiratory distress syndrome. There was a 62% increase for every twofold increase in IgG. In all, 11,066 patients received NAAT; of these, 457 had repeatedly negative results. Serum samples were collected from 18 of these patients - six were COVID-19 case-patients and 12 were non-COVID-19 controls. Five of the six patients COVID-19 case-patients and none of 12 controls had antibodies detected (P=0.001). It was thus concluded that antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 can point to infection if measured 14 or more days after symptom onset, are associated with clinical severity, and can provide diagnostic support when patients have negative results on NAAT but COVID-19 is still suspected. [JULY 6 ANNALS OF INTERNAL MEDICINE] ....read more

World Covid Meter 16th July: India Number 3, 213 Countries Affected

Cases: 1M April 2, 2M April 15, 3M April 27, 4M May 8, 5M May 20, 6M May 30, 7M June 7, 8M June 15, 9M June 22, 10M June 29, 11M July 4, 12M July 10 ,Ground Zero: Wuhan - in live animal market or cafeteria for animal pathogens: 10th January; Total cases are based on RT PCR, 67% sensitivity ,Doubling time India 21 days, USA 33 days, Brazil 13 days, Russia 18 days, Spain 47 days, UK 35 days, Italy 55 days, France 49 days, Turkey 37 days ,Likely minimum deaths (586820 + 59617 x 15 == 8943) = 595762,Coronavirus Cases: 13,691,570,Deaths: 586,820,Recovered: 8,037,140 ....read more

The lips of truth shall be recognized forever

This sutra from Bible has a very deep significance in day to day life. The truth is ever lasting and always ends up in internal happiness and self-realization. And, in the long run, it always gives you happiness and an all-win situation. A lying tongue, on the contrary, will only give you a momentary pleasure but will lead to or create some difficulty later in life.Spoken words cannot come back just as in the case of a released arrow from the bow. Once lost, one cannot get back his youth, virginity, or respect. Similarly, spoken bad words cannot be taken back and once spoken will create negative waves in the other person’s (on whom they were spoken) mind which will persist as repressed thoughts or memory in the people’s mind forever. Such bad memories will keep on coming back in the person’s mind causing damage to the personal relationships. ....read more

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Unusual fever after COVID 19 only in AC and fan

Healthcare News Monitor

Indian pharma industry can produce COVID-19 vaccines for entire world: Bill Gates

Express Pharma

Bill Gates, Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist, said that India’s pharma industry will be able to produce COVID-19 vaccines, not just for the country but also for the entire world. He was speaking in a documentary – COVID-19: India’s War against the Virus. It will be premiered on Discovery Plus today.Gates said, “I am excited that the pharma industry there will be able to produce not just for India but also for the entire world. (This is) What we need to reduce the deaths and make sure we are immune, which is how we end the epidemic.”

V B Pharma working on plasma-based treatment for COVID patients

Bio Spectrum

While Indias hopes for an early vaccine against COVID-19 got delayed by a year, theres another beacon for cost-effective COVID treatment. A Karnataka based pharma company Vinodbadgu Pharmaceutical Pvt. Ltd. (V B Pharma) specializing in plasma technology has revealed that it is already working on research to synthesise a more effective plasma-based treatment for COVID patients."Since May 2020, were on a mission to develop a safe, efficient and cost-effective treatment for COVID 19 patients in India", said Prashant Karulkar, director, Vinodbadgu Pharmaceutical Pvt. Ltd. (V B Pharma). ,"So far, weve evaluated donor plasma from COVID-recovered patients and identified different kinds of COVID strains across India. By our count, this number is 12. Our sample strengths are from Solapur. Weve been able to identify specific antigens for the COVID strains from here and the most common antibodies against them", added Karulkar.

Beds don’t treat patients: Doctors do. And they are in short supply. Here’s what to do

TOI

Leading epidemiologists predict that by the end of the year India will have millions of Covid-19 infected patients, vastly higher than present numbers. Let us prepare for the worst and pray for the best. Thanks to the early lockdown by the government we got two months to prepare for the Covid onslaught. Today we are debating about exporting PPEs and ventilators, rather than struggling to import them a couple of months ago. Our attention should now shift towards reducing mortality, especially in rural India.The first round of the Covid battle was won by doctors and nurses working mainly in government and some private hospitals. They did a phenomenal job at a very early stage of the pandemic. Today these doctors are tired and burnt out. Both private and government hospitals treating Covid patients are desperately short of young specialist doctors and nurses, not beds, as media projects.

Indian doctors prefer foreign medical educational sites to stay updated: Doceree

Bio Spectrum

Doctors continuously need to keep themselves updated with regard to medical advancement, new research and latest techniques in the field, and Indian doctors throng foreign doctor-only medical education websites to keep their knowledge base enhanced than Indian ones, reveals an analysis carried out by Doceree, the World’s Largest Programmatic Physician Engagement Platform, using a leading international web analytics platform.The data, analyzed for June this year, shows that of the 432 million login sessions of top 10 foreign doctor-only medical education websites from the US, the UK and Canada, a staggering 20 million were from India. During the same span, India’s top 6 doctor-only medical education websites recorded a dismal 43K sessions.