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Centre urges doctors to prescribe remdesivir drug only for severe patients on oxygen support

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FE Online    15 April 2021

The central government has advised physicians and doctors not to prescribe the antiviral drug Remdesivir in an unreasonable manner. It is only used for serious COVID-19 patients who are on oxygen support. Due to the shortage of remdesivir drugs across several states, the government has urged doctors to carefully prescribe this drug.

Dr VK Paul, head of the country’s COVID-19 Task Force said that usage of Remdesivir drug in home settings was unethical and other unreasonable prescription of this drug is also unwarranted. Dr Paul said that this drug should only be used on patients admitted in the hospitals and are on oxygen support. Dr Paul has requested the doctors and physicians to use this drug rationally and judiciously.

The Centre had also mentioned that there was no vaccine shortage despite several reports of shortage being reported from several states.Union Health Secretary, Rajesh Bhushan had cited saying that the centre had supplied 13.10 crore vaccines to the states and they had utilised only 11.4 crore vaccine doses and about 1.6 crore vaccine doses are still unused.

Bhushan highlighted the significant amounts of doses being wasted by several states. Few states like Kerala have reported zero wastage, while some states have wasted upto 10 percent of doses. He further said that the states should improve their planning and proper unutilised doses of vaccine from one cold storage to another storage. Many states are the worst affected states such as Maharashtra, who have reported a shortage of vaccine doses.

The Union Health Secretary had zeroed in states, which is a major concern with regard to the coronavirus pandemic that includes Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Delhi, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. The top healthcare official said that almost 53 central teams are deputed to the worst 53 districts to provide assistance to the district authorities in the controlling the spread of coronavirus infection.

Source: Financial Express

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