[lapis_lazuli]

Originally Posted by vivek95

pre exposure prophylaxis.

What about Ivermectin-Doxycycline combo? What do you personally feel about this combo? Would you trust the good results Bangladeshi doctors have published or is it far too early to conclude and/or econo-political undercurrents preventing the usage of a cheap and effective re-purposed drug?

[mercedised]

Originally Posted by akhil_007

I feel WHO is acting like a paper-pusher/excel manager/messenger/translator these days. Always getting egg on their face when they open their mouth. I feel USA and Brasil were right in pulling out funding. Their handling on this entire pandemic including PR or assistance is laughable at best and criminal waste of money at worst.
If India is also finding them, we should stop and divert it towards our healthcare asap

What do you expect from such organization whose Director General (chief) is not even a Doctor.

[joslicx]

Originally Posted by mercedised

What do you expect from such organization whose Director General (chief) is not even a Doctor.

Well it's not necessary that the DG should be a doctor. At the top what you want is an administrator, a leader and an organization person. He or she need not be a subject matter expert. They would anyway have lot of experts to counsel them. Those posts people have to navigate different waters like politics, policy, vision, and execution. The person running the show should be able to steer the boat thru all these. So you need very different skill set than just subject matter expertise.

[mvadg]

Can someone who regularly reads the CDC bulletins / RSS feeds verify if the following is actually from the CDC:

... CDC, USA
[07/06, 12:10]
*Who is expected to catch corona....
infect you, the virus needs a dose of: ~1000 viral particles (vp)
The typical environmental spread of activities:
Breath: ~20 vp/minute

I am unable to verify the authenticity of the source. Found it on a Facebook page of someone with the handle "myairmyhealth"

[am1m]

Originally Posted by mvadg

I am unable to verify the authenticity of the source. Found it on a Facebook page of someone with the handle "myairmyhealth"

Like with most things floating around in the social media sphere these days, this is a great example of something that must have evolved from a few genuine studies, was picked-up and modified for the present situation, was picked up by a couple of media streams, that added their own spin and flawed conclusions and finally takes different forms in different social media channels.

Research into viral particle load is ongoing and nothing new, here are a couple of studies from 2011 and 2018: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7090536/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5798362/

And anyone can google and find n-number of such studies.

The thing is these studies are almost always inconclusive as the research papers themselves are strict about stating, for example:

"In summary, many studies have been conducted that provide information on the MID (minimum infective dose) of human viruses. However, due to differences in the epidemiology and culture methods for each virus and differences and limitations of experimental procedures, estimations of the MID should be interpreted with caution. Notwithstanding these limitations, the MID of respiratory and enteric viruses appears to be low and should be viewed in relation to the likely host characteristics of the at-risk population of interest."

Basically: we're working on it, we don't know for sure, but based on THIS particular study, this is the data.

BUT that's not what social media wants, media NEEDS a headline, something with the air of finality, a conclusion and preferably sensational that will grab clicks, eyeballs, likes, hates, publicity.

Hence something that starts out as a narrow study with no specific conclusions, morphs into something like this.

Now studies into the viral load are obviously important for pharmacological and medical research. But practically, whether it is this virus or any of the viruses that cause the common cold- longer exposure, in close proximity, in an an enclosed space with someone who has the virus is going to increase my chances of getting it. Not really a ground-breaking discovery!

[Jagann13]

People with O-type blood less likely to test positive for coronavirus, study finds.

The study involved more than 750,000 participants, including 10,000 who reported having Covid-19, following which it was found that people with O-type blood were between 13 and 26 per cent less likely to test positive.

Links to the source:
https://www.theweek.in/news/health/2...rches.amp.html

https://m.khaleejtimes.com/coronavir...us-study-finds

https://www.foxbusiness.com/lifestyl...r-covad-19.amp

[PGA]

Will it ever end? If yes when. This question came to my mind last night, sort of bad dream and lingered on in the morning. But a strange coincidence occurred and in my news feed today morning came this article.

http://maths.mdx.ac.uk/research/mode...epidemics-end/

There is already an info overload in the head and all the stats flew over. In the nutshell what I gathered is that we are following the simulations for our country as of 7 Jun 20, we will peak at daily rate of about 16-20k sometimes in Jul/Aug before numbers start falling. Precautions and preventive measures will continue till a vaccine or certain cure comes along. Localised spurts and flare up will continue.

[Behemoth]

Originally Posted by lapis_lazuli

What about Ivermectin-Doxycycline combo? What do you personally feel about this combo? Would you trust the good results Bangladeshi doctors have published or is it far too early to conclude and/or econo-political undercurrents preventing the usage of a cheap and effective re-purposed drug?

This combination is actually working and is being given in Government hospitals (I have close Family who are doctors in Govt hospitals on Covid duty). Patients are recovering as early as 4-5 days and also test negative within 7 days - the results have been replicated in Indian hospitals too and has helped bring down the death rate drastically.
There are multiple clinical trials already underway (even in India by ICMR) and globally on this combination, but typically clinical trials take 6 months to 1 year to publish results as they have to be very thorough and detailed.
You can follow this link for news on trials of Ivermectin if interested (there are multiple pages - see "older entries" for more)
https://www.trialsitenews.com/category/ivermectin/

The irony is that this treatment only costs a total of 95 Rupees (10 tabs 2 BD x5 days Doxycycline - 70 Rs and 1 tablet (only once - for 60kg adult) of Ivermectin 12mg - 25 Rupees) and it is taken orally, without the need for any IV or hospitalization.

Such a treatment is not economically viable for Private Hospitals and Big Pharma who would rather have patients paying bills in lacs.

(Disclaimer: please do not take my advice as medical advice as I am not a medical Doctor - please consult your own family doctor!)

[Shreyans_Jain]

Originally Posted by vivek95

This " let's not compare " argument is true but applicable for both the parties. Hope people will not start berating India now considering New Zealand as a benchmark. As a Doctor I am more impressed with our own Bangalore.

This is a bit off topic but as you raised the name of Bangalore, please enlighten us..

What is the testing scene in Bangalore? How does it compare with the 17000tests/million of Mumbai and the 13000/million of Delhi? Is the strain of the virus different there? Just curious to understand how the number of cases is so much lower there as compared to Delhi and Mumbai.

[vivek95]

Originally Posted by Shreyans_Jain

This is a bit off topic but as you raised the name of Bangalore, please enlighten us..

What is the testing scene in Bangalore? How does it compare with the 17000tests/million of Mumbai and the 13000/million of Delhi? Is the strain of the virus different there? Just curious to understand how the number of cases is so much lower there as compared to Delhi and Mumbai.

Off topic --

Sorry, there is nothing much I know to enlighten anyone. There has been no conclusive study to suggest there is a different strain in Bangalore, definitely not.

Coming to the testing rate, Maharashtra as of last week May and first week June had been conducting close to 17000 tests per day ( inclusive of Mumbai ) while that in Karnataka, it was hovering over 14000/ day inclusive of Bangalore. Now I don't have the exact figure for Bangalore city in isolation, but Mumbai is conducting 4000 tests per day. I am also curious as you to learn more about the mystery behind so less cases in Bangalore. So far, the stats look almost same for both the states.

[vivek95]

Originally Posted by lapis_lazuli

What about Ivermectin-Doxycycline combo? What do you personally feel about this combo? Would you trust the good results Bangladeshi doctors have published or is it far too early to conclude and/or econo-political undercurrents preventing the usage of a cheap and effective re-purposed drug?

Sorry Sir. I have personally not used this combo and neither has anyone else in my hospital. However some other hospitals in Mumbai have been trying this combo and I shall update if I get to know some first hand information.

+++

I just happened to read this article on "Medscape". Italian doctors claim the virus is getting weaker. Considering the lesser number of deaths in Italy past few weeks, I think there is an evidence for their claim. Also his reply to WHO is a befitting one. I too have stopped following WHO simply because there are only standard generic statements out on the WHO website that will neither help doctors nor the administrators of any country.

This is his claim




And this is his befitting reply to WHO. I agree with him, I would anyday trust the statements of those Doctors who are actively involved in handling the pandemic day in and day out than the WHO.

[bharatbits]

What is the travel scene like in and around Mumbai for someone who wants to do a Mumbai - Pune - Mumbai day trip by car? Are any passes, permits required?

[Behemoth]

These are the rates Max Hospitals (in Delhi NCR) are charging for Covid treatment. A person who is not even on ventilator (ward patient) will end up paying almost 30k (including consumables and medicines) per day and for 10 days treatment - 3 lacs. If the patient is in ICU, the bed charges are 72k per day add another 30k of medicines and consumables, so make it 1L per day. 10 days of ICU with ventilator will set you back by 10L. Even if you have health insurance, most insurance providers will disagree to pay these rates as there are no Insurance approved rates yet for Covid with these hospitals. So the common man is going to be in a quandary soon. Even if young people don't fall ill, their parents and close family may and that is where people will be affected badly.
The irony is that the government claims (in Delhi at least to have capped rates), but the reality is very different on ground.
In this scenario. Prevention and simple cures are better than getting severely ill and hospitalized!

[Raghav96]

Originally Posted by Behemoth

These are the rates Max Hospitals (in Delhi NCR) are charging for Covid treatment. A person who is not even on ventilator (ward patient) will end up paying almost 30k (including consumables and medicines) per day and for 10 days treatment - 3 lacs.

I think this reason is strong enough for majority of us to keep our bravery in our pocket and stay at home as much as possible. Money saved is money earned.

It is not compulsory for asymptomatic patients to get admitted to a hospital, right?

Thanks in advance.

[hydraulicsteer]

Originally Posted by Behemoth

These are the rates Max Hospitals (in Delhi NCR) are charging for Covid treatment.

To my sense this pricing is kept deliberately so as to discourage the masses to turn up to these so called Star category hospitals in case of a Covid emergency.

This is sad and points to horrendous state of health care in the country. As a taxpayer it is disheartening how the higher taxes we’ve been paying over all these years are not even able to provide us above average quality affordable healthcare (be it public or private). Sometimes i feel the tax evaders were right about keeping more money in your pocket than giving it to the government to spend on statues at least the one with you can be used for the family.