CME INDIA Presentation by Dr Chandrakant Tarke, Pulmonologist, Apollo Hospital, Hyderabad.
Current strains in India:
- Current COVID 19 cases may be mixture of various strains.
- Apart from last year strains a new double mutant strain of SARS CoV2 virus has been detected in India.
- This is in addition to other UK, South African and Brazilian variants of the virus already circulating in 18 states of the country.
How variant strain cases differ from first wave:
- The new virus strain having two mutations is highly infectious and has a potential to skip the immunity developed either by natural infection or vaccines.
- That’s why it’s not uncommon to see re-infection cases and cases among vaccinated people.
- For now, the new strains of Covid-19 do not appear to increase the severity of the illness, but evidence suggests that they are more easily transmissible.
Is RT PCR not relevant always in such cases?
- Ideally RT PCR should detect COVID 19 caused by all strains, but still some newer variants may be missed. According to WHO, some mutations like HV 69/70 has the capability to affect the RT-PCR testing as well and may go undetected in the tests. But the impact of the new mutation on the RT-PCR testing being deployed worldwide is expected to be minimal.
How to diagnose such cases?
- RT PCR negative COVID 19 cases should be diagnosed based on classical history, clinical symptoms and CT chest findings.
How vaccinated Covid-19 cases are behaving?
- I have seen around half-dozen post vaccine COVID 19 cases (after 2 weeks 2 doses of either COVAXIN or COVISHIELD).
- Most of them were asymptomatic, mildly symptomatic (with normal or mildly raised CRP) with either normal CT Chest or mild CT changes.
- All improved without Remdesivir or steroids.
CME INDIA Tail Piece
CME INDIA recommends this post of CMAAO, HCFI dated 29/03/2021 (By Dr K K Agarwal group) 🌿☘️🌲
Green festival means to improve environmental sustainability.
- Most states have banned Holi in public places to avoid large gatherings in view of the resurgence in coronavirus cases.
- For Holika dahan, use cowdung cakes or coconut coir instead of wood. This will prevent cutting of trees. Use camphor to light the bonfire. This has deeper significance that one must also burn all negative thoughts and ego.
- Use natural colors as much as possible. This will help preserve biodiversity.
- Avoid chemical colors as they are a health hazard. They may contain ground glass or mica, which are harmful.
- Avoid playing Holi with water to avoid wastage of water. It has been estimated that around 30 litres of water is wasted by one person during Holi, which means 150 lakh liters of water is wasted if 5 lakh people play Holi with water.
- Play Holi with flower petals.
- Make colors at home using flowers, vegetables and other home ingredients. They are environment friendly.
- About 59.5% people suffer from allergy due to colors.
- Sometimes colors are thrown on animals also, which causes blindness.
- Awareness needs to be created about the dangers of preservatives.
- Be cautious about adulterated sweets.
- Avoid alcohol
- Oxidised metals, industrial dyes and engine oils are being used in colors.
- Engine oil can be removed with instant coffee.
- Holi is the major festival in Uttarayan, while Diwali is the festival in Dakshinayan. The festival of Holi is played with friends and those who are not your friends. The 8 days before Holi, called Holashtak, are meant to remove the negative attitude of a person and build friendships and turn your enemies into your friends. Once the negativity of the mind is removed, Holi is played in a spirit of friendship.
- Play Vedic Holi. Use cow dung cakes, havan samagri and ghee to burn the Holika bonfire, instead of wood. This is an eco-friendly option.
- The benefits of Vedic Holi should be disseminated.
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Excellent article by Dr. Chandrakant. Very informative. CME tail piece is giving good information about holi. Celebrating vedic holi is excellent idea. Discouraging holi with water is stupid as you can save water on other 364 days also and water crisis is not because of holi celebration. I think all these rituals are well planned and performed by our ancestors. We need to develop the mind and mentality to understand that.
Well, article belongs to a group and represents their views….
Very good start ,we all need to update & learn , clarify our doubts,.