‘All vaccines under trials subjected to very stringent tests’

Chennai: Amid the controversy surrounding Haryana health minister Anil Vij testing Covd-19 positive after getting a trial vaccine shot, K VijayRaghavan, principal scientific adviser to the Central government on Saturday said all vaccines under late-phase trials are subjected to very stringent tests. “Vaccines are administered to healthy people. Therefore, the demand for trials and safety are enormous.... A vaccine administered has to be safe, has to have an immune response that suggests it can deal with the infection and must actually be effective in the field. Therefore, all the vaccines that are in late-phase trials are subjected to very stringent tests," he said while speaking at the IIT-M Alumni Association’s annual event Sangam 2020. ....read more

Being Fat: Is it Good, Bad or Ugly?

Join us today as we try to figure out the good, the bad and the ugly aspects of being fat, on MEDtalks with Dr K K Aggarwal COVID edition, at 7:00 PM.Just click on www.facebook.com/drkkaggarwal or https://perfecthealthmela.com/vevent2/hall1a.php

CMAAO Coronavirus Facts and Myth Buster: Vaccine Difficulties

With input from Dr Monica Vasudev1185: Minutes of Virtual Meeting of CMAAO NMAs on “CMAAO Update and vaccine difficulties” 28th November, 2020, Saturday, 9.30am-10.30am Participants: Member NMAs: Dr KK Aggarwal, President CMAAO, Dr Alvin Yee-Shing Chan, Hong Kong, Treasurer, CMAAO, Dr Md Jamaluddin Chowdhury, Bangladesh Medical Association, Dr SM Qaisar Sajjad, Secretary General, Pakistan Medical Association Invitees: Dr Russell D’Souza, Australia UNESCO Chair in Bioethics, Dr S Sharma, Editor IJCP GroupKey points from the discussion:Discussion point #1: Status of coronavirus in various countries ,The world pattern shows a single wave with three peaks. In the first peak, the mortality was very high, then the mortality and number of cases were equal; in the third wave, the mortality is high as is the number of cases. The mortality is proportionate to the number of cases. ....read more

World COVID Meter 5th December, Acute manageable immunogenic thrombogenic inflammatory viral disease pandemic

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 29th, 11M July 4, 12M July 8, 13M July 13, 14M July 17, 15M July 23, 16M July 25, 17M July 29, 18M August 1, 19M August 6, 20M August 10, 21M August 16, 22M August 19, 23M August 21, 24M August 27, 25M August 30, 26M September 3, 27M September 7, 28M September 10, 29M September 14, 30M September 18, 31M September 21, 32M September 23, 33M September 28, 34M October 1, 35M October 4, 36M October 8, 37M October 11, 38M October 14, 39M October 17, 40M October 19, 41M October 22, 42M October 24, 43M October 26, 44M October 28, 45M October 30, 46M November 2, 47M November 4, 48M November 6, 49M November 7, 50M November 8, 51M November 10, 52M November 12, 53M November 14, 54M November 15, 55M November 17, 56M November 19, 57M November 20, 58M November 22, 59M November 24, 60M November 25, 61M November 27, 62M November 29, 63M December 1, 64M December 2, 65M December 4 Ground Zero: Wuhan - in live animal market or cafeteria for animal pathogens: 10th January; Total cases are based on RT PCR, 67% sensitivity Coronavirus Cases: 66,210,918,Deaths: 1,523,550,Recovered: 45,797,529 ....read more

Let the mud settle down

Once, while traveling, Buddha passed a lake. He asked his disciple to get him some water from that lake as he was thirsty. The disciple noticed some people washing clothes in the water. At that very moment, a bullock cart also crossed through the lake. The water became muddy and turbid. The disciple thought to himself that he could not take such muddy water to Buddha to drink. So, he came back to tell Buddha that the water was muddy and wasn’t fit for drinking. ....read more

Video of The day

Chronic Kidney Disease and COVID-19

Healthcare News Monitor

Twin challenges for Indian pharma-boosting drug discovery and localising API production

health.economictimes.indiatimes.com

by Nikkhil Masurkar,Executive Director, ENTOD PharmaceuticalsIndia is often referred to as the ‘pharmacy of the world’; not without reason. The third largest pharmaceutical market in the world by volume, India supplies a bulk of generic drugs globally not just to under-developed countries but also to the US and UK. Notably, India supplies almost 40% of the total American generic drug demand and addresses as much as 25% of the total drug demand in the UK. India’s pharmaceutical sector also fuflfils over half of the total global demand for vaccines.

Indian pharma companies take coronavirus ride; production of anti-malarial drugs shoot up 334%

financialexpress.com

The coronavirus pandemic has devastated almost all corners of the economy; however, the pharma industry has used it as a launchpad. The production of anti-malarial drugs rose by a record 334.3 per cent from Rs 5.4 crore in H1 FY20 to Rs 21.9 crore in H1 FY21, said a report by Care Ratings. The surge in production was led by the recommendation of the ‘National task force for Covid-19’ constituted by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) to use the anti-malarial drug, hydroxychloroquine for the treatment of a select category of people infected with Covid-19. However, as the patients refrained from visiting doctors amid the lockdown, the production of other medicines had a fall, but not as much to offset the surge in the anti-malarial drugs. Prime Minister Narendra Modi today said that India will soon have a safe corona vaccine and urged the state governments to start working on cold storage.

Indian-American doctor identifies possible Covid treatment

tribuneindia.com

An Indian-American scientist has discovered a potential strategy to prevent life-threatening inflammation, lung damage and organ failure in patients diagnosed with Covid-19. Published online in the journal Cell, the research coming from the lab of Dr Thirumala-Devi Kanneganti, an Indian-born researcher working at St Jude Childrens Research Hospital in Tennessee, identified the drugs after discovering that the hyper-inflammatory immune response associated with Covid-19 leads to tissue damage and multi-organ failure in mice by triggering inflammatory cell death pathways.

Doctor who ‘saw death and returned’, to serve at Covid-19 ICU

indianexpress.com

This year, The Indian Express captures the work of corona warriors, women and men leading the war against Covid-19 — risking all, so that others can be secure. This will be followed by a special show to be anchored by superstar Amitabh Bachchan and telecast on November 29 at 8.30 pm on Star Plus as well as Disney+ Hotstar. While others his age have been sequestering themselves at home since the coronavirus pandemic began, pulmonologist Dr Jalil Parkar has been on the frontlines. The 62-year-old has been posted in the Covid ICU of Mumbai’s Lilavati Hospital since March, but for a brief while when he and his wife both spent time there, after being infected with the virus.