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Health

Two doctors infected in Assam; Coronavirus cases rose to 58, death 2

Guwahati: The total number of coronavirus cases in Assam rose to 58 with two junior doctors testing positive for the disease on Friday and the test report of a 16-year-old girl confirmed the infection after her death, Health minister Himanta Biswas Sarma said. Two infected junior doctors are from Guwahati Mediacal College and North Eastern Regional Dental College.

The girl was suffering from fever and a pain in her leg. When her condition deteriorated, she was admitted to B Barooah Cancer Hospital on Thursday where she died later, the minister said at a press conference.

Her sample, taken for COVID-19 testing, and was found to be positive. It is “very unfortunate as she did not get the necessary treatment”, he said.
“We will have to discuss with the Union Health Ministry whether we can declare that she died due to COVID-19 as we did not treat her for the disease. She was found to be positive after her death,” Sarma said.

The Kamrup (Metro) district administration has declared two hostels and areas around the Guwahati Medical College Hospital, the employers’ colony near the B Barooah Cancer Institute where the girl lived with her grandmother and certain areas in Kharghuli and Chandmari as containment zones.

Sarma said of the total cases in the state, 21 are active while 34 have been cured of the disease and one died.

The health minister said that a bus carrying 45 passengers had arrived in Silchar on Wednesday from Rajasthan’s Ajmer.

Three of them tested positive on Friday, taking the the total number of cases related to this particular group to eight. Thirty-three were negative and results of other tests are awaited, he said.

Since the passengers had gone home briefly after screening, several areas in four villages of Cachar district have been declared as containment zones, Sarma said, adding direct and indirect contact tracing was on and 185 people have been quarantined in facilities.

In the last 24 hours, Assam reported a sudden spike in the number of COVID-19 cases. Of the 11 cases reported since Thursday, nine have travel history.

After a post-graduate student of the medicine department of Guwahati Medical College Hospital tested positive for COVID-19, the facility has been closed for new patients and 386 people, including hospital superintendent, doctors, students and several workers, have been quarantined, the health minister said.

Their swab tests have been conducted and the results were expected by Friday night. The medical student was engaged in screening of COVID-19 patients from May 4, Sarma said.

A 55-year-old woman from Kharghuli Hills area of Guwahati has tested positive and admitted to GMCH. Her family members have also been quarantined.

The fourth person to test positive in Guwahati had returned from West Bengal on May 6 along with two others in a personal vehicle. The person has been admitted to Mahendra Mohan Choudhury Hospital while the other two have tested negative, Sarma said.

“This is the second case with travel history to West Bengal and we have asked the police department not to issue passes to those originating their journey from this state, except in humanitarian cases,” the minister said.

Sarma said that three positive cases in Guwahati with no travel or contact history indicates that traces of the novel coronavirus may be prevalent in the city.

“People should, however, not panic but strictly follow the guidelines and report to doctors in case they have influenza-like illness (ILI) and diarrhoea,” he said.

So far, 1,032 people have entered the state since May 6 through check posts at Srirampur and Chagalia along the Assam-West Bengal border from where they proceeded to the five screening centres at Kokrajhar, Guwahati, Tezpur, Jorhat and Silchar.

The minister also said that harassing doctors, nurses and health workers is a non-bailable offence under the Epidemic Control Act and the Disaster Management Act.

May 9, 2020 by BrahmaFeed

Science

Will India pin its hopes on anti-viral drug remdesivir?

With cases on the rise, India is closely tracking progress of anti-viral drug remdesivir’s usage to cure Covid-19 patients.

After Gilead Science’s anti-viral drug remdesivir showed signs that it could become a standard of care to fight Covid-19 pandemic, a US government disease expert welcomed the key clinical trial results. India, too, may pin its hopes on the drug in a bid to treat rising Covid-19 patients.

Gilead Science’s antiviral drug remdesivir gained traction after the US governmADVERTISEMENectious disease expert Dr Anthony Fauci called the early results of a key clinical trial as “good news” in the fight against novel coronavirus.

Preliminary results showed that patients given remdesivir recovered 31 per cent faster than those given a placebo.

: Gilead says remdesivir shows improvement in Covid-19 patients when used early President Donald Trump called the remdesivir drug trials “a stepping stone in moving faster in the direction of making a vaccine”.

Fauci said, “FDA is working with Gilead to figure out mechanisms to make this easily available to those who need it.”

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, a wing of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the US, said early results from its 1,063 patient trials show that hospitalised Covid-19 patients who were given remdesivir recovered in 11 days, compared to 15 days for those who were given a placebo.

The study also showed that 8 per cent of patients who were given the drug died, as compared to 11.6 per cent in the placebo group. However, the difference was not statistically significant so may not be due to Gilead’s drug, they added.

Will India consider remdesivir?

India is part of World Health Organisation’s (WHO) solidarity trials for vaccines.

Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) Director Dr Raman Gangakhedkar said earlier that India has kept an eye out on the results from the trials conducted with remdesivir and the data that is being collected on it.

“It is a product made by Gilead company. ICMR is participating in a solidarity trial with WHO, an arm of that solidarity trial is also working on the efficaciousness of remdesivir. Can other pharmaceutical companies make it? Once we know that then we shall move forward from there,” said Gangakhedkar on April 13.

It has been widely reported that remdesivir had previously failed as a treatment for Ebola, but it is now being tried against the novel coronavirus. Gangakhedkar explained that the drug prevents certain viruses from multiplying.

“Remdesivir a drug that was being used in Ebola outbreak. The drug acts on the mutation of the Covid-19 virus, which is why researchers believe that it could work.”

An earlier clinical trial conducted in China with remdesivir revealed details about the Ebola drug’s inefficacy on critical Covid-19 patients.

Released prematurely by WHO, results of the China trial suggested no benefit of the drug in terms of preventing death and reducing virus load. WHO retracted it soon after. Gilead had rejected the claim and said the study was released too early due to low patient enrolment.

US grants emergency approval for remdesivir for Covid-19 patients

Remdesivir

During a meeting in the Oval Office with President Donald Trump, Gilead Chief Executive Daniel O’Day called the move an important first step and said the company was donating 1 million vials of the drug to help patients.
In this file photo one vial of the drug Remdesivir is viewed during a press conference about the start of a study with the Ebola drug Remdesivir in particularly severely ill patients at the University Hospital Eppendorf (UKE) in Hamburg, northern Germany on April 8, 2020, amidst the new coronavirus Covid-19 pandemic.
In this file photo one vial of the drug Remdesivir is viewed during a press conference about the start of a study with the Ebola drug Remdesivir in particularly severely ill patients at the University Hospital Eppendorf (UKE) in Hamburg, northern Germany on April 8, 2020, amidst the new coronavirus Covid-19 pandemic. (AFP)
The experimental drug remdesivir has been authorized by US regulators for emergency use against Covid-19, President Donald Trump announced Friday.

It comes after the antiviral made by Gilead Sciences was shown in a major clinical trial to shorten the time to recovery in some coronavirus patients, the first time any medicine has had a proven benefit against the disease.

“It is really a really promising situation,” Trump said at the White House, where he was joined by Gilead’s CEO Daniel O’Day.

“We are humbled with this first step for hospitalized patients,” said O’Day, adding: “We want to make sure nothing gets in the way of these patients getting the medicine.”

The company has previously announced it was donating some 1.5 million doses for free.

This amounts to about 140,000 treatment courses based on a 10-day treatment duration.

Remdesivir, which is administered by an injection, was already available to some patients who enrolled in clinical trials, or who sought it out on a “compassionate use” basis.

The new move allows it to be distributed far more widely and used in both adults and children who are hospitalized with a severe form of Covid-19.

The Food and Drug Administration, which authorized the approval, defines severe as having low blood oxygen levels, requiring oxygen therapy, or being on a ventilator.

‘Proof of concept’

The US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) announced the results of a trial involving more than 1,000 people on Wednesday.

It found that hospitalised Covid-19 patients with respiratory distress got better quicker than those on a placebo.

Specifically, patients on the drug had a 31 percent faster time to recovery.

“Although the results were clearly positive from a statistically significant standpoint, they were modest,” Anthony Fauci, the scientist who leads the NIAID told NBC News on Thursday.

While not considered a miracle cure, remdesivir’s trial achieved a “proof of concept,” according to Fauci that could pave the way for better treatments.

Remdesivir incorporates itself into the virus’s genome, short circuiting its replication process.

It was first developed to treat Ebola, a viral hemorrhagic fever, but did not boost survival rates as other medicines.

The Food and Drug Administration FDA) has signed on the emergency use of Gilead Sciences Inc’s remdesivir drug for treating severe cases of COVID-19.

The drug, according to studies reduced the time it took patients to recover from the coronavirus infection. US President Donald Trump, on May 1, said that the FDA has granted Emergence Use Authorisation (EUA) for the investigational antiviral remdesivir.

Follow our LIVE Updates on the coronavirus pandemic here

The announcement was made at the Oval Office by Trump alongside Gilead CEO Daniel O’Day.

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“This EUA opens the way for us to provide emergency use of remdesivir to more patients with severe symptoms of COVID-19,” said Daniel O’Day, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Gilead Sciences.

Also Read | Exclusive: Gilead says open to collaborate with govts, drug firms to make Remdesivir globally available

“We will continue to work with partners across the globe to increase our supply of remdesivir while advancing our ongoing clinical trials to supplement our understanding of the drug’s profile. We are working to meet the needs of patients, their families and healthcare workers around the world with the greatest sense of urgency and responsibility.”

May 1, 2020 by BrahmaFeed

Economy

8-month ‘structured lockdowns’ could halve economic damage from the coronavirus, research claims

A pedestrian wearing a face masks crosses an empty street amid the coronavirus outbreak on April 25, 2020 in San Francisco, California.—
Liu Guanguan | China News Service
Enforcing eight-month “structured lockdowns” could halve the economic destruction that would be wrought by Covid-19 if no social-distancing measures were imposed, according to researchers from Cambridge University and the Federal Reserve.

Reopening the economy has been a tension point in some countries, with economic damage being weighed against protecting public health and protests against lockdown measures being staged across the United States.

However, according to the study, published Wednesday by economists from Cambridge University and the U.S. Federal Reserve Board, the economic price of inaction when it comes to encouraging social distancing could be twice as high as that of a “structured lockdown.”

Using U.S. economic and population data, researchers combined macroeconomics with epidemiology to determine the economic consequences of lockdown policies. Analysts noted that their model could be applied to most developed economies.

They found that imposing no lockdown at all would be “extremely risky” for economic output, as the spread of the virus would hit workers in sectors that were vital to keep developed economies functional.

Without any social distancing, the core workforce would be hit hard — and the economy would shrink at a peak monthly rate of 30% as their industries came under pressure, the study projected.

Researchers claimed that in order to protect the economy to the maximum, “core workers” — those in key industries such as health care, food and transportation — must be separated from the rest of the working population.

“What seems clear to us is that taking no action is unacceptable from a public health perspective, and extremely risky from an economic perspective,” the report’s authors said.

Protests over stay-at-home orders staged in several US cities
The report considered several lockdown policies, projecting how each scenario would impact the economy.

In the first scenario, 15% of core workers and 40% of the rest of the working population would work from home, while 30% of non-working age people could also be kept at home under lockdown. This would last for eight months, and would mean a third of the entire population was kept in lockdown for that period.

In this scenario, the peak monthly economic contraction at any point in the lockdown would be halved to around 15%, compared to the peak monthly contraction of 30% if no action was taken, analysts projected. They claimed that the high levels of social distancing outside of the core workforce would act as a shield.

Giancarlo Corsetti, professor of economics at Cambridge University and co-author of the report, said under this policy, the peak of the infected share of the population would drop from 40% to 15% — although he noted that even this level may still be “far too high” for health-care systems to cope with.

“This milder lockdown scenario for eight months would be one in which we do not wait for the vaccine, but we hope for a form of herd immunity by exposing people very slowly to the disease,” he told CNBC in a phone call.

“As well as containing the loss of life, committing to long-term social distancing structured to keep core workers active can significantly smooth the economic costs of the disease,” he added. “The more we can target lockdown policies toward sections of the population who are not active in the labor market, or who work outside of the core sector, the greater the benefit to the economy.”

weden isn’t on a national lockdown amid coronavirus—Here’s why
Researchers also modeled a scenario where infection rates were kept to a more manageable level of 1.5% of the population for 18 months — around the length of time many experts have projected it will take a vaccine to reach the market.

In this more stringent case, 25% of core workers, 60% of non-core workers, and 47% of non-working age people would need to be locked down. If this policy was implemented, the study projected a peak monthly economic contraction of 20%.

A “very strict lockdown” was also modeled, which would see 40% of core workers and 90% of the rest of the population locked down for three months. This scenario would be as bad for the economy as having no lockdown at all, the study found, as infection rates would simply be delayed and herd immunity would be prevented.

However, researchers stressed that the scenarios laid out in their study were not forecasts, but should be taken as a “blueprint” for further analysis, as lingering uncertainties around how the coronavirus spreads remained.

Corsetti told CNBC there was “really no tradeoff between health and the economy.”

“One problem that is currently missing in the discussion is the ability to distinguish between essential sectors and non-core sectors, and this idea of thinking very carefully about the effect people may have by going around and infecting those essential workers — essential workers need to be protected and shielded,” he said.

“An unmitigated, very fast spread of the disease would have been quite disastrous on the economic side — there was a high risk of a true, enormous fall in output and economic activity.”

April 29, 2020 by BrahmaFeed

Health

Coronavirus spread must be stopped in Asia’s ‘biggest slum’ to save India

BBC News
The garment trader lived in Dharavi where more than half-a-million people are spread over 2.5 grubby sq km, which is less than a square mile. (Imagine a population larger than Manchester living in an area smaller than Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens.) The slum was the inspiration for the Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire film and city planners from all over the world have studied its throbbing economy and society.

The local doctor examined the man and he left with a prescription for cough syrup and paracetamol. Three days later, the man turned up at the Sion Hospital close to home. His fever had climbed and the cough was getting worse. He said he had no travel history, so doctors gave him more cough syrup and sent him home once again.

On 29 March, the man returned to the hospital with signs of respiratory distress. Doctors admitted him, and promptly sent swabs for the Covid-19 test.

Three days later, the results arrived – he had tested positive. His condition deteriorated sharply and doctors tried to move him to a bigger hospital already treating Covid-19 patients.

It was too late: he died that evening.

That garment trader was the first Covid-19 patient from Dharavi. People living in this packed-to-the gills slum city suffer from all the common diseases afflicting Mumbai, one of the world’s most densely-populated cities, from diarrhoea to malaria.

But an outbreak of coronavirus in a place where social distancing is an oxymoron could easily turn into a grave public health emergency and overwhelm the city’s stretched public health system.

Nobody realises this more than the officials racing to track and contain the infection.

Patient No 1 of Dharavi lived with his eight-member family – his wife, four daughters, and two sons – in a poky 420 sq ft one-room apartment in a low-rise slum tenement ringed by squalid shanties.

“When we asked his family, they told us the man had no recent travel history and only went to the local mosque,” Kiran Dighavkar, an assistant municipal commissioner in charge of the area, told me.

But there was a twist in the tale.

The man owned another apartment in the same complex. There he hosted five people who had reportedly arrived from Delhi after attending a conference in early March organised by Tablighi Jamaat, a religious movement that has followers in more than eight countries including Indonesia, Malaysia and the US.

Dharavi lockdown
Hundreds of people who attended the religious event in the capital set off several Covid-19 clusters across the country and are now linked to some 650 cases across 14 states.

The police believe the five men lived in the Dharavi apartment for two days – between 19 and 21 March- before they left for Kerala. “We are trying to trace these people,” said Mr Dighavkar.

“We have to find out the source of infection. How did this man get the infection and from whom? And we have to contain this infection by taking aggressive steps,” he said.

The family of the deceased trader insists he didn’t have a passport, something that the police are sceptical of. So they are trying to dig out his mobile phone records to find out more about his movements.

For the moment, the race is to ensure that the infection is contained. So 308 apartments and 80 shops in nine six-storey buildings in the complex where the trader lived have been completely sealed. Some 2,500 residents have been put under home quarantine. Food rations are being supplied. Health workers have disinfected the apartments with household bleach. Swabs of eight ‘high-risk’ occupants of the building – the trader’s family and an acquaintance in the building – were sent for testing.

More than 130 residents above the age of 60 and another 35 who are suffering from unrelated respiratory diseases are being closely watched for Covid 19 symptoms.

Fearing an outbreak, authorities have taken over the 50-bed Sion Hospital, and quickly set up a 300-bed quarantine facility in a neighbouring sports complex. Protective gear has been given to doctors and nurses at the hospital.

Yet all this may not be enough to prevent an outbreak.

On Thursday, a 35-year-old doctor working with a private hospital and living in the slum tested positive for the virus. Municipality workers scrambled to isolate and seal 300 people living in the doctor’s building. They have also identified 13 high-risk contacts in the building and sent their swabs for testing. The doctor told officials that two nurses in his hospital had tested positive for the virus. And at the weekend, a 30-year-old woman inside the same building complex as the trader, a 60-year-old man, who owns a metal fabrication shop and a 21-year-old male lab technician, tested positive.

“We are still able to try to contain the infection of the gated slum colonies. But there are the slums outside, and if we get cases there, we can’t isolate them at home, and have to send even the high-risk cases to the sports complex quarantine centre,” says Mr Dighavkar.

If that happens, the struggle to contain the infection will turn into a messy battle. The local hospital and makeshift quarantine will be easily overrun by cases.

Dharavi and Mumbai
Testing will have to be stepped up and results will have to arrive in time. After the first two cases – the trader and the doctor – 21 samples were collected from the slum. After more than 48 hours, the results of only seven have come in. The state-run hospital where the testing is being done says it is swamped by samples. Another 23 samples were picked up after the two new cases and sent to the lab on Saturday. It is not clear when the results will arrive.

“We are losing time because of the delay in results. It also delays shifting people who test positive into isolation,” Virendra Mohite, the medical officer, who is leading the health teams in the slum, told me.

These are some of the real challenges to contain a massive outbreak of a disease in a unique, otherwise self-contained slum, which is home to fishermen, potters, furniture makers, garment makers, tailors, accountants, waste recyclers and even some of Mumbai’s edgiest rappers. Dharavi, writer Annie Zaidi once observed, is a place full of “stories of desperation and grit, initiative and very, very hard work.”

Now it faces its most daunting challenge of preventing a cataclysmic wave of contagion.

April 25, 2020 by BrahmaFeed

Economy

When will the economy return to normal?

It has been only three months since reports first emerged from China of an unknown virus causing unusual cases of pneumonia. Scientists and public health experts already know more about it and how it works than at the same point in earlier outbreaks.

But there’s still a lot they don’t know. As the new coronavirus (Covid-19) continues to spread around the world, here are some of the most important questions researchers and doctors – as well as policymakers and economists – are still trying to answer: How contagious is the virus?

The virus spreads from person to person through small droplets from the nose or mouth via coughing or sneezing, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). It can persist on most surfaces up to several days, so in addition to directly inhaling the virus, you can become infected by touching something that has been contaminated and then touching your own nose, mouth or eyes. There is some evidence that virus particles in the feces of an infected person can transmit the disease through contact, but that remains unconfirmed.

Are younger people less likely to die from the virus?
Younger people, while less vulnerable, can still develop COVID-19 – the disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus – severe
enough to require hospitalization. Just how much safer they are is still unanswered. The WHO says older people with pre-existing conditions – such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or asthma, high blood pressure, diabetes and heart disease – appear to develop serious illness more often than others, while a U.S. health official said the mortality rate in males appears to be twice that of women in every age group. Health officials have cautioned that anyone with those underlying conditions, as well as those with weakened immune systems, are at increased risk.

Can people be re-infected?
This is a key question – and we don’t yet know the answer. There are a handful of cases of possible “reinfection” in recovered patients. But most scientists believe those are more likely to have been relapses. A patient may feel better and test negative for the virus in their nose and throat, while the virus remains elsewhere in their body. Fully recovered patients have antibodies in their blood that should protect them from fresh infection, but we don’t know how long those antibodies will last.

With some viruses, antibodies fade faster. Even if they do persist, SARS-CoV-2 might undergo small changes over time, as flu viruses do each year, rendering the antibodies ineffective. Several academic laboratories and medical companies are looking to produce blood tests to figure out who has been exposed to the virus and whether some people have developed immunity. Serological testing will also give a better picture of the full extent of the pandemic.

How long will the pandemic last?
We don’t know. It will depend on a range of factors, from how long people continue to isolate and avoid group gatherings to when
effective drugs or a vaccine become available. President Donald Trump said this week that he hopes to “reopen” the U.S. economy by Easter Sunday on April 12. But he has faced criticism that such a timetable is too rushed and could lead to more people dying. In Hubei province, the epicenter of China’s coronavirus outbreak, life has started to return to normal after two months of lockdown. It remains to be seen whether such a return to normal spurs another outbreak.

Does the amount of exposure to the virus determine how sick someone gets?
Viruses enter the body and infect cells, using them as factories to make many millions of copies of themselves, so the number of virus particles that first enter the body has little effect on the eventual amount of virus in the system. At the same time, more frequent exposure does increase the chance that the virus will enter the body in the first place.

When will the economy return to normal?
The International Monetary Fund expects the pandemic will cause a global recession in 2020 that could be worse than the one triggered by the 2008 financial crisis. The depth of a recession, how long it will last and the nature of the recovery are a matter of debate. Economists say it will largely depend on how long the lockdowns last – around a quarter of all humanity is currently in lockdown – and how far government support goes in helping individuals, businesses and markets survive the crisis.

Are the trillions of dollars in emergency spending helping?
Central bank measures have sought to keep financial markets functioning, including areas that keep the real economy humming, such as the markets where companies go to raise short term cash to pay staff and where cities go to raise money for roads and schools. Steps taken by governments, such as the $2 trillion U.S. stimulus package, are expected to further help the economy by putting cash in the hands of individuals and providing additional funding to small businesses and companies. Such measures still need to work through the system, however, and it remains unclear whether they will be enough.

Is it a good time to invest?
Some investors and bank strategists are starting to look at whether people should buy back into the world’s stock markets, which have plunged some 25% from their highs in February. U.S. hedge fund manager Bill Ackman said this week he had turned increasingly positive on stocks and credit and was “redeploying our capital in companies we love at bargain prices that are built to withstand this crisis.” But with all the uncertainties, many more analysts and investors remain shy about calling the bottom of the market.

April 23, 2020 by BrahmaFeed

Health

No new vaccine yet, the century-old BCG brings hopes to stop pandemic

Scientists and medical experts continue to find a vaccine to stop the coronavirus invasion.

But scientists from John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health have found that the death rate of COVID-19 is six times lower in countries that use the BCG injection.

Researchers at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute in Melbourne believe that a booster – or even a first dose of BCG – could in fact help protect against coronavirus by turbo-charging the immune system.

Trials in four countries are already underway with 4,000 Australian hospital workers are volunteering for a six-month trial, while a team in the Netherlands are testing it on 1,000 healthcare workers.

Boston in Massachusetts are in talks over their own trial, while Exeter University here in the UK are also considering it.

Scientists from various parts of the world have claimed developments of vaccines to withstand the pandemic, but not a single one is available for common people yet. As researchers scramble to find new drugs and vaccines for Covid-19, a vaccine that is more than a century old has appears as silver line amids clouds of fear and desperation. The Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccine which was first developed to fight off tuberculosis – is being studied in clinical trials around the world as a way to fight the novel coronavirus.

According to Dr. Denise Faustman, director of immunobiology at Massachusetts General Hospital and associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, BCG is effecive despite its assured efficacy.Tuberculosis and Covid-19 infection are two very different diseases – TB is caused by a type of bacteria while Covid-19 is caused by a virus, for starters. But the BCG vaccine might help people build immune responses to things other than TB, causing ‘off-target effects’.

In other words, in clinical trial format, people started picking up positive benefit from getting the vaccine that had nothing to do with tuberculosis,Dr. Faustman says. She has studied how the BCG vaccine affects people with Type 1 diabetes for many years. She is interested in how its off-target effects change the immune system in beneficial ways for people with autoimmune diseases such as Type 1 diabetes. Though the exact mechanism for these off-target effects of the BCG vaccine isn’t clear, it’s believed that the vaccine can cause a nonspecific boost of the immune response.

There is currently no vaccine or treatments approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for the novel coronavirus. While hopeful that the BCG vaccine will prove to be effective against Covid-19 – as with any of the treatments and vaccines under development – Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease specialist at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, admits the concept is a bit unconventional.

“I think BCG vaccine is a bit of the equivalent of a Hail Mary pass,” said Schaffner. “It’s such an outside-the-box concept that one would like to be optimistic, but we’ll have to wait and see.” Several countries around the world are beginning human clinical trials to evaluate the BCG vaccine’s efficacy, such as Australia and the Netherlands.

Faustman and her colleagues are preparing for trials in Boston, which are currently under a multistep review process. Once approved, she and her team members hope to enroll about 4,000 health care workers into the trial. The vaccine has been available for more than 100 years and has proved to be relatively safe, Faustman said.

“BCG is heralded by the World Health Organization as the safest vaccine ever developed in the world,” she said. “Greater than 3 billion people have gotten it.” While several countries, including the United States, do not regularly administer the BCG vaccine, it is still used widely in developing countries.

Researchers have attempted to look at whether these countries with regular BCG vaccine administration have lower rates of Covid-19-related mortality. One study by researchers in New York found an association between universal BCG vaccination policies in countries and reduced morbidity and mortality for Covid-19.

But why has China had high morbidity and mortality with Covid-19 despite a universal BCG policy since the 1950s? The study said China had a weakened policy during the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s and ’70s, which might have created “a pool of potential hosts that would be affected by and spread COVID-19.”

Also, China has not had as steep of a rise in its curve compared to some other countries without universal policies, such as Italy, Spain and the US. She also added that different strains of the BCG vaccine might have different rates of efficacy.

by Chandan Kumar Duarah, He is a Science Journalist based in Guwahati, India
________________________________________

What is BCG vaccine?
BCG vaccine – or Bacillus Calmette-Guerin to give its full name – is a jab given to prevent people from catching tuberculosis (TB).

It is often given to children between the ages of 10 and 14, but babies and those under the age of 35 can also receive one if they are most at risk.

For young children, it is recommended they receive the injection if they are in areas where the risk of TB is higher, or if they have a parent or grandparent born in a country where the rate is considered high.

Evidence has shown that the BCG vaccine does not work for those over 35.

Why didn’t everyone in the UK have BCG vaccine?
BCG vaccinations took place from 1953, with children between the ages of 10 and 14 receiving one.

But this was stopped in July 2005 as it was no longer cost effective for the number of cases that rose.

In 1953, 94 children were immunised to prevent a case of TB, where as in 1988, 12,000 children would be vaccinated to prevent a single case.

The injection is still available on the NHS for those most at risk – but no longer as a regular jab for all children.

April 11, 2020 by BrahmaFeed

Community

Washing Hands With Ash: Bangladeshi Community Radio

A month ago, community radio stations in Bangladesh started broadcasting information related to a quickly spreading threat: COVID-19. The amount of this content escalated rapidly: from 25 hours by March 23rd, to 40 hours three days later.

These 16 stations are non-commercial, donor-supported, locally run, and mostly volunteer-operated. They’re especially useful to communicate with people with low or no literacy, or to keep up with the quickly changing situation on the ground. NGOs like Translators without Borders, which generally depend on face-to-face interaction in Bangladesh, are turning to other formats. “Some of the partners that we’re working with are using radio, which of course is ideal,” says Ellie Kemp, head of crisis response for Translators without Borders.

Mark Manash Saha, the program coordinator of the Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and Communication (BNNRC), says that the community radio stations typically broadcast information on relevant health topics, from family planning to vaccination. Of course, these aren’t typical times. “The situation is deteriorating very fast,” Saha notes of the spread of COVID-19 in Bangladesh. There’s been limited testing of Bangladeshi nationals returning from other countries in recent weeks, amidst shortages of testing and other equipment. And as one of the world’s most densely populated countries, it will be very challenging to maintain social distancing, or even the prevention of large gatherings, in Bangladesh. (The government has shut the country’s largest brothel, amidst other containment measures.)

There’s a hunger for accurate information, and community radio stations are a part of this response. According to Saha, these FM stations have a collective audience of 6.8 million people. These include people who listen via their cellular phones, from farmers in their fields to homemakers in their homes. As for the broadcasters, Saha estimates that ¾ of the volunteers are staying away from the studio. He says that the volunteers are working with local coronavirus prevention committees, and collecting information over the phone.

This content is locally produced, after being checked by Saha, but the medical advice is taken from Bangladeshi medical experts, the World Health Organization, UNICEF and the national government. Here’s an example of an exchange (translated by Abdur Rahman):
A month ago, community radio stations in Bangladesh started broadcasting information related to a quickly spreading threat: COVID-19. The amount of this content escalated rapidly: from 25 hours by March 23rd, to 40 hours three days later.

April 10, 2020 by BrahmaFeed

Health

Coronavirus disease advice for the public: Myth busters

BY NEWSROOM DESK MARCH 26, 2020 COVID-19 EDIT
COVID-19 virus can be transmitted in areas with hot and humi climatesd
From the evidence so far, the COVID-19 virus can be transmitted in ALL AREAS, including areas with hot and humid weather. Regardless of climate, adopt protective measures if you live in, or travel to an area reporting COVID-19. The best way to protect yourself against COVID-19 is by frequently cleaning your hands. By doing this you eliminate viruses that may be on your hands and avoid infection that could occur by then touching your eyes, mouth, and nose.

Cold weather and snow CANNOT kill the new coronavirus.
There is no reason to believe that cold weather can kill the new coronavirus or other diseases. The normal human body temperature remains around 36.5°C to 37°C, regardless of the external temperature or weather. The most effective way to protect yourself against the new coronavirus is by frequently cleaning your hands with alcohol-based hand rub or washing them with soap and water.

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Taking a hot bath does not prevent the new coronavirus disease
Taking a hot bath will not prevent you from catching COVID-19. Your normal body temperature remains around 36.5°C to 37°C, regardless of the temperature of your bath or shower. Actually, taking a hot bath with extremely hot water can be harmful, as it can burn you. The best way to protect yourself against COVID-19 is by frequently cleaning your hands. By doing this you eliminate viruses that may be on your hands and avoid infection that could occur by then touching your eyes, mouth, and nose.

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The new coronavirus CANNOT be transmitted through mosquito bites.
To date there has been no information nor evidence to suggest that the new coronavirus could be transmitted by mosquitoes. The new coronavirus is a respiratory virus which spreads primarily through droplets generated when an infected person coughs or sneezes, or through droplets of saliva or discharge from the nose. To protect yourself, clean your hands frequently with an alcohol-based hand rub or wash them with soap and water. Also, avoid close contact with anyone who is coughing and sneezing.

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Are hand dryers effective in killing the new coronavirus?
No. Hand dryers are not effective in killing the 2019-nCoV. To protect yourself against the new coronavirus, you should frequently clean your hands with an alcohol-based hand rub or wash them with soap and water. Once your hands are cleaned, you should dry them thoroughly by using paper towels or a warm air dryer.

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Can an ultraviolet disinfection lamp kill the new coronavirus?
UV lamps should not be used to sterilize hands or other areas of skin as UV radiation can cause skin irritation.

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How effective are thermal scanners in detecting people infected with the new coronavirus?
Thermal scanners are effective in detecting people who have developed a fever (i.e. have a higher than normal body temperature) because of infection with the new coronavirus.

However, they cannot detect people who are infected but are not yet sick with fever. This is because it takes between 2 and 10 days before people who are infected become sick and develop a fever.

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Can spraying alcohol or chlorine all over your body kill the new coronavirus?
No. Spraying alcohol or chlorine all over your body will not kill viruses that have already entered your body. Spraying such substances can be harmful to clothes or mucous membranes (i.e. eyes, mouth). Be aware that both alcohol and chlorine can be useful to disinfect surfaces, but they need to be used under appropriate recommendations.

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Do vaccines against pneumonia protect you against the new coronavirus?
No. Vaccines against pneumonia, such as pneumococcal vaccine and Haemophilus influenza type B (Hib) vaccine, do not provide protection against the new coronavirus.

The virus is so new and different that it needs its own vaccine. Researchers are trying to develop a vaccine against 2019-nCoV, and WHO is supporting their efforts.

Although these vaccines are not effective against 2019-nCoV, vaccination against respiratory illnesses is highly recommended to protect your health.

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Can regularly rinsing you
Download and share r nose with saline help prevent infection with the new coronavirus?

No. There is no evidence that regularly rinsing the nose with saline has protected people from infection with the new coronavirus.

There is some limited evidence that regularly rinsing nose with saline can help people recover more quickly from the common cold. However, regularly rinsing the nose has not been shown to prevent respiratory infections.

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Can eating garlic help prevent infection with the new coronavirus?
Garlic is a healthy food that may have some antimicrobial properties. However, there is no evidence from the current outbreak that eating garlic has protected people from the new coronavirus.

Does the new coronavirus affect older people, or are younger people also susceptible?
People of all ages can be infected by the new coronavirus (2019-nCoV). Older people, and people with pre-existing medical conditions (such as asthma, diabetes, heart disease) appear to be more vulnerable to becoming severely ill with the virus.

WHO advises people of all ages to take steps to protect themselves from the virus, for example by following good hand hygiene and good respiratory hygiene.

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Are antibiotics effective in preventing and treating the new coronavirus?
No, antibiotics do not work against viruses, only bacteria.

The new coronavirus (2019-nCoV) is a virus and, therefore, antibiotics should not be used as a means of prevention or treatment.

However, if you are hospitalized for the 2019-nCoV, you may receive antibiotics because bacterial co-infection is possible.

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Are there any specific medicines to prevent or treat the new coronavirus?
To date, there is no specific medicine recommended to prevent or treat the new coronavirus (2019-nCoV).

However, those infected with the virus should receive appropriate care to relieve and treat symptoms, and those with severe illness should receive optimized supportive care. Some specific treatments are under investigation, and will be tested through clinical trials. WHO is helping to accelerate research and development efforts with a range or partners.

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POSTED IN HEALTH, UNCATEGORIZED

March 26, 2020 by BrahmaFeed