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Business News/ News / India/  AIIMS chief shares two important learnings from treatment of Covid-19
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AIIMS chief shares two important learnings from treatment of Covid-19

'We have learnt that 2 things are most important – drugs and timing of drugs,' says Dr Randeep Guleria
  • Earlier, Guleria had highlighted two key reasons for the rapid surge in Covid-19 cases all across the country
  • AIIMS Director Dr Randeep Guleria (ANI)Premium
    AIIMS Director Dr Randeep Guleria (ANI)

    As India reels under the massive surge of Covid-19 cases in the second wave of the pandemic, the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Delhi director Dr Randeep Guleria explained key points from Covid-19 management from last year.

    According to the AIIMS director, in the last one year, there are two important learnings from treatment of Covid-19. "We have learnt that 2 things are most important – drugs and timing of drugs," he said.

    "If you give them too early or late, it would cause harm. Giving cocktail of drugs on day 1 can kill your patient and would be more harmful," elaborated Guleria in an interview with news agency ANI.

    On the usage and efficacy of the anti-viral drug Remdesivir, Guleria raised a pertinent point. He highlighted, "It's important to understand that Remdesivir isn't magic bullet and isn't a drug that decreases mortality. We may use it as we don't have an anti-viral drug. It's of no use if given early to asymptomatic individuals/ones with mild symptoms. Also of no use, if given late."

    Moreover, he added that Remdesivir should only be given to patients who are hospitalised, have a fall in oxygen saturation and have infiltrates on the chest X-ray or CT-scan.

    "Recovery trials showed that steroids will benefit but it's also important to know when they're given. If given early before your saturation (O2) falls, it has harmful effect. COVID patients who got steroids early had higher mortality than those who didn't. It is of no use if steroids are given on day 1. They are useful only in moderate to severe illness when oxygen saturation is falling," he further added.

    Earlier, Guleria had highlighted two key reasons for the rapid surge in Covid-19 cases all across the country.

    Terming the cause of Covid spread as "multifactorial", the AIIMS chief told news agency ANI, "The two main causes are-when in Jan/Feb vaccination started and cases went down people stopped following COVID appropriate behaviour and at this time the virus mutated and it spread more rapidly."

    "This a time when a lot of religious activities happen in our country and polls also underway. We must understand lives are also important. We can do this in a restricted manner so that religious sentiment is not hurt and COVID appropriate behaviour can be followed," he emphasised.

    He pointed out the worrying pressure on the healthcare system and availability of the beds adding, "We are seeing a huge strain in the healthcare system. We have to keep increasing our hospital beds, resources for the increasing number of cases."

    "We have now a larger spike in Delhi as compared to 6-7 months ago. In terms of health infrastructure and containment, what we were doing in the past we need to do that again," he further added. So far, a UK strain, Brazil and South African variants and a double mutant of the virus have been reported in Delhi.

    Meanwhile, India's top experts on Monday said RT-PCR tests detect coronavirus in around 80 per cent of the cases, so clinical features and CT scans/chest X-rays should be used to rule out false negatives in symptomatic patients followed by a repeat test after 24 hours.

    Amid SARS COV-2 'variants of concern' circulating, they said RT-PCR tests do not miss mutations as the ones being used in India target more than two genes.

    According to government data till April 15, a total of 1,189 samples have tested positive for 'variants of concern' of SARS COV-2 in India which include 1,109 samples with the UK variant, 79 samples with South African variant and one sample with the Brazil variant.

    Based on ICMR data, the current variants are also being picked up by the RT-PCR tests. The RT-PCR test has sensitivity of around 80 per cent and therefore 20 per cent of the cases can still be missed out.

    "Also, if the sample is not properly taken or if the test is done too early when the viral load is low, it may come out negative. So, if a person is symptomatic, a combination of clinical features, laboratory reports, CT/chest X-ray can be used for presumptive diagnosis of COVID-19 and treatment should be started accordingly. The test should also be repeated after 24 hours," AIIMS Director Dr Randeep Guleria told PTI.

    According to the Health Ministry, India reported 2,73,810 new COVID-19 cases, taking the total number of positive cases in the country to 1,50,61,919. There are currently 19,29,329 active cases in the country as of Monday.

    The death toll reached 1,78,769 with additional 1,619 fatalities.

    In the last 24 hours, as many as 1,44,178 people recovered from the virus. With this, the total number of recoveries reached 1,29,53,821 in India.

    With inputs from agencies

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    Published: 19 Apr 2021, 03:40 PM IST
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