CMAAO CORONA FACTS and MYTH
Dr K Aggarwal , President CMAAO, HCFI, , With input from Dr Monica Vasudev
India
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New Delhi, January 03, 2021:
Minutes of Virtual Meeting of CMAAO NMAs on “Lessons learned from COVID-19 in 2020”
26th December, 2020, Saturday , 9.30am-10.30am
Participants : Member NMAs
- Dr KK Aggarwal, President CMAAO
- Dr Marthanda Pillai, India, Member World Medical Council
- Dr Md Jamaluddin Chowdhury, Bangladesh Medical Association
- Dr Marie Uzawa Urabe, Japan Medical Association
- Dr Prakash Budhathoky, Treasurer, Nepal Medical Association
Invitees :
- Dr Russell D’Souza, Australia UNESCO Chair in Bioethics
- Dr S Sharma, Editor IJCP Group
Key points from the discussion :
- The pandemic has taught us the significance of cell and plant physiology.
- It has taught us the anatomy of the thymus, the structure of the virus and the behavior of the virus.
- We are shifting back from closed to open environment.
- It has introduced a new terminology “inflammatory lifestyle”.
- There are two types of blood clots – white clots and red clots. Covid-19 has helped to understand the difference between the two.
- Rising CRP on Day 4 is a sign of continuing inflammation.
- Overtreatment can lead to mutations.
- The pandemic has taught us risk triage to reduce mortality.
- In dengue, SGOT levels are more than SGPT, but now may also be due to coronavirus infection.
- This pandemic has brought back conservative approaches. Streptokinase (STK) is back.
- Postpone emergent surgeries.
- There are two types of fever: Viral fever due to IL-6 (thermoregulatory dysfunction) and pyroptosis fever due to IL-1β.
- Negative symptoms: Lymph node enlargement (other than mesenteric lymph nodes), effusions, joint involvement, hoarseness of voice rule out Coronavirus infection.
- Rising d-dimer, reducing platelets and reducing LDL are markers of thrombosis.
- Covid-19 has highlighted the importance of postprandial sugar. In these patients, postprandial sugar will increase first.
- Fever more than 101, CRP>10 and ground glass opacities on CT scan are markers of pneumonia.
- CRP is a marker of inflammation.
- Bring CRP to less than 1 before, during and after the infection.
- ESR is not important in the acute phase. It is important for recovery.
- This pandemic has taught us the importance of subclinical diseases (thyroiditis, myocarditis).
- Ct value on RT PCR is useful. The Ct value for the new UK variant is lower.
- It has redefined contact as cumulative exposure time and not one time exposure.
- It has taught us the advantages of prone ventilation/sleeping.
- Typhoid antigen can be false positive in Covid-19.
- A person who has tested negative on RT PCR may still have acute thrombotic events after 1-2 weeks due to delayed immunological reaction.
- Persons with proven re-infection do not have neutralizing antibodies.
- Cellular immunity tests (T cell tests) are now coming in the US.
- We now know that faster development of vaccines is possible.
- Isolation, quarantine and monitoring became familiar terms.
- We learnt the significance of correct, consistent and continuous use of facemasks.
- Face to face interactions have the risk of spread of the virus.
- We learnt the importance of bitter and astringent foods in diet.
- Loss of smell and taste are important symptoms of Covid-19.
- Five systemic locations aside from lungs are involved: Eyes, skin, GI, heart, blood, liver.
- Left eye conjunctivitis in this time is Corona unless proved otherwise.
- Various terms like emergency use authorization, vaccine hesitancy, consortium, broader good came to be known.
- Adult vaccination, vaccination priorities, vaccine storage temperature (-70 degree vs 2 degree) became the points of discussion.
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