India coronavirus dispatch: The necessity of testing healthcare workers

A great opportunity to transform India's mental healthcare, nurses resign due to poor work condi-tions & low pay, second chance for Tamil Nadu-roundup of news on how India is dealing with the pandemic

Opinion

This is a historic opportunity to transform India’s mental healthcare system: This is a historic opportunity to invest in and transform India’s mental health care system. While we certainly need more money, we also need to spend it wisely, guided by the best science. Mental health care must embrace the diversity of experiences and strategies which work, well beyond the narrow confines of traditional biomedicine with its emphasis on “doctors, diagnoses and drugs”. Read more here.

In new lockdown, a second chance for Tamil Nadu: While the majority of cases in the State are restricted to Chennai and three adjoining districts—making the task of containing the spread rela-tively easy—the areas in Chennai where more cases are being reported are those that are chock-a-block with people. That crowded neighbourhoods enable easy spread of the virus is the reason why aggressive screening, testing and isolation need to be carried out in double quick time. Read more here.

Contours of post-Covid economy suggest a new framework of employment: It may be imperti-nent to hazard a guess on how much the current contagion would alter traditional jobs. Those at the threshold of employment, as well as those on the brink of unemployment, are equally perplexed. New tools and skills are required to survive in the gig economy. Great opportunity cohabits with great risk in the new economy. Therefore, the government and the private sector would need to col-laborate along with academia to build adequate safeguards in the unfolding eco-system. Read more here.

Managing Covid-19

Delhi LG mandates five-day institutional quarantine for Covid patients: Independent trackers are reporting a slightly different death tally than the health ministry. According to Worldometer, India has 381,485 confirmed cases and that 12,605 people have died because of Covid-19. India has the eighth highest death toll in the world and the fourth highest confirmed cases of the viral in-fection. Read more here.

The delicate question of inappropriate admissions in India’s critical care units: A critical care unit (CCU) is a specialist hospital ward that treats seriously unwell patients needing organ support and very close monitoring. Most of these patients have lung and/or heart failure. Organ support is provided by ventilators, dialysis, medications, pacemakers and other devices. Critical care beds are a limited and expensive resource in India. To offer good, cost-effective critical care to appropriate patients and to protect those unlikely to benefit from critical care, a number of essential reforms must be introduced in all CCUs in India. Read more here.
 

India does not test healthcare workers regularly, putting them and patients at risk: Healthcare workers are more susceptible to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, but India has no pol-icy on regularly testing its healthcare workers, including doctors, nurses and support staff working in Covid-19 hospitals, quarantine or isolation centres or non-Covid medical facilities. This lack of testing of healthcare workers puts their colleagues, patients and the community at a higher risk, research has shown. Despite this, India’s Ministry of Health and Family Welfare had said that there was no need to quarantine healthcare workers unless they had been exposed to Covid-19 ei-ther by mistake or because of a lack of personal protective equipment (PPE). Read more here.

In many hospitals, poor working conditions, low salaries force nurses to resign: Facing exhaus-tive working hours, sub-standard protective gears, low salaries and no assurance of their safety from the government, reports suggest that several nurses employed in Delhi’s private healthcare sector have resigned. Nurses, many of whom are from other parts of the country, are particularly worried about contracting Covid-19 amid inadequate treatment facilities in the national capital. Read more here.

Understanding Covid-19

What is Dexamethasone? Is it really the wonder cure for Covid-19? A drug known for decades is being hailed as a wonder cure for Covid-19 after the study group conducting a clinical trial in United Kingdom said Dexamethasone “reduces death by up to one third in hospitalised pa-tients with severe respiratory complications”. The hype around Dexamethasone reminds us of the time when Hydroxychloroquine was announced as a “cure” for Covid-19. Read more here.
 

What are air shields that may protect passengers from infection on board flights? A Seattle-based company Teague has come up with a device called an air shield that can fit on to existing air vents inside an airplane cabin, thereby reducing the risk of Covid-19 spreading inflight by regulating the air flows. As lockdowns are being lifted, international air travel is expected to resume slowly. In India, while domestic flights resumed on May 25, international flights will remain suspended till June 30. Read more here.

Antibodies in Covid recovered patients last only 2-3 months, finds Nature study: People who have recovered from Covid-19 may have antibodies only for two to three months, said a study published Thursday in Nature Medicine. However, the conclusions might not necessarily mean that a recovered person can get reinfected, stated the authors. The limited findings offer clues to one of the biggest questions about Covid recovery, vaccination, and serological surveys. Read more here.