India is currently facing its second wave of Covid-19. The country on Tuesday reported 3,57,229 cases with the total tally of Covid-19 cases in the country reaching 2,02,82,83.
The health infrastructure in the country is crumbling with a dearth of hospital beds with oxygen while there is a huge requirement of these from patients. AIIMS Director Dr Randeep Guleria on Monday warned against prescribing steroids and CT scans for those with mild symptoms, as per a report by the Indian Express
Guleria who is also a member of the national task force on Covid-19 said that hospitals were seeing patients with mild symptoms requiring oxygen after they had consumed steroids. He said this happens because steroids cause virus replication and a drop in oxygen levels.
For moderate disease, only three specific treatments are effective, he said.
“First is oxygen therapy; second, when the illness is moderate and oxygen saturation is low, then there is a role for steroids; third is anticoagulants because we know Covid-19 pneumonia is a little different from viral pneumonia and promotes the clotting of blood. There could be blood clots in lungs resulting in a drop in blood saturation. Again, in mild illness, there is no role for anticoagulants,” Guleria said.
He also cautioned against overuse of CT-scan for diagnosis of Covid-19 saying excessive use could cause cancer.
“There have been studies which show that around 30-40 per cent of people who are asymptomatic but are Covid positive and got a CT scan done, also had patches but ended without any treatment,” AIIMS Director Randeep Guleria told reporters.
He said there was no advantage of doing a CT scan if a patient had mild symptoms and suggested getting a chest X-ray done instead.
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