India Coronavirus Dispatch: Doctors are keen on Plasma despite ICMR move

Covaxin phase-III trials soon, medical grade oxygen supply may shrink, and is Covid airborne?--news on how the country is coping with the pandemic

Why doctors are keen on Plasma: ICMR chief said last week that plasma therapy could be removed from the list of Clinical Management Protocols for Covid-19. Despite this, its demand  continues full steam. Currently, plasma therapy is an investigational therapy permitted “off label”, meaning for unapproved use outside trial settings. Doctors say the therapy produces genuine results, in contradiction to the findings of a ICMR study. The study itself has been criticised over procedural shortcomings. Experts also point out that the study was conducted on patients in the ‘moderate stage’ of the disease. But the fact remains that the rise of plasma as an option has been aided, in part, by various state governments batting for the treatment without any hard evidence. In some cases doctors try plasma therapy as a ‘last resort’. Read more here
 

Medical oxygen: Experts say the September surge had a key lesson for future spikes: we can run out of medical grade oxygen supply pretty quickly. Further, as hospitals began to run short on oxygen, so did the industrial sector. 70-80 per cent of oxygen supply in India is reserved for industrial usage but this was largely diverted to hospitals amid the pandemic, leading to fears of production losses for industries such as steel, glass and pharmaceuticals. With a new spike expected anytime soon owing to festive season, experts are warning that we should prepare for a fresh shortage soon. During the peak, consumption of medical oxygen went up five to eight times since it began to be used to treat Covid-19. Part of the reason for this shortage, it has since been discovered, is that some plants shut down after a suffering a breakdown of operations. Read more here 
 

Covaxin phase-III trials: Healthcare workers from Delhi hospitals may soon be part of Phase III human trials of Covid-19 vaccine candidate Covaxin. Senior officials say around 3,000-4,000 healthcare workers from will participate in the trials. A proposal by Bharat Biotech, the company which is working on Covaxin, is now being examined for approval by the Delhi government. The workers for the critical trials will be from both government and private hospitals. Health Department officials say ‘complete clarity’ on the issue is required before the approval is granted. Volunteers would be followed up over a significant period of time for studying the efficacy of the vaccine in curbing Covid-19. Anyone above the age of 18 years can participate in the human trials. Read more here
 

Comment

Data integrity: On several instances during the Covid-19 pandemic, public health experts have raised concerns about data related to the virus. State officials and the centre have sparred over official death tolls and caseloads. It has also been noticed in many instances that the count in hospitals and cemeteries are far higher than the official one. It’s no surprise, therefore, that questions regarding the integrity of data are now being raised when the pandemic begins a downward trend. Top hospital and lab authorities have said that local officials are suppressing Covid figures to reflect a better scorecard. This charge, if true, is a very serious one. Since most work related to containment zones has been delegated to states, data gathering is undertaken on the local level. The editorial warns that manipulating data is the greatest disservice that can be done to the country. Read more here
 

Understanding Covid-19

Covid in air? In official circles, it’s not yet confirmed if the Coronavirus is airborne. However, a growing consensus among experts warns against underestimating the possibility of airborne transmission. WHO, meanwhile, does agree that airborne transmission of the virus can occur during medical procedures that generate aerosols. Some studies, too, have shown that the virus can linger in the air for up to three hours at a time. But a major caveat of such studies is that they’re performed in Lab conditions. However, most models for the virus suggest that while aerosol transmission is possible, the chances of infection are quite low. Experts across the world have also made recommendations on how to stay safe indoors where the risk of aerosol transmission is particularly high. Read more here