Covid-19 crisis: Rush for Remdesivir increases in Tamil Nadu; Ivermectin taken off treatment protocol

The state government warned of action under Goondas Act against those hoarding Remdesivir and increasing the price of oxygen

Despite doctors clarifying that Remdesivir is not a life-saving drug and it does not work on all Covid-19 patients, the queue to buy vials of the anti-viral drug keeps growing with each passing day. Relatives of patients are standing in serpentine queues at major cities in Tamil Nadu for hours on end to buy the medicine – not everyone gets lucky as the medicine is in short supply and only a few hundred tokens are issued each day.

The Tamil Nadu government on Saturday shifted selling of the drug from a medical college hospital to a sprawling indoor stadium, but the ever-growing crowd only raised fears of more people contracting coronavirus.

Doctors and healthcare experts have been appealing to people not to crowd centres that sell Remdesivir as the drug cannot guarantee the life of a Covid-19 infected person. However, doctors also continue to prescribe the medicine, forcing the kin of patients to run from pillar to post in search of it.

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“The doctor treating my mother has prescribed Remdesivir, and I stood in the queue for two days but in vain. What else are we supposed to do when private hospitals ask us to buy the drug?” asked a 43-year-old man, who had come to the stadium to buy the drug.

He said only 300 tokens are issued each day at the stadium, while a few hundred tokens each are issued at four other counters across the state. “The government should increase the number of counters selling the drug, or instruct hospitals not to prescribe. It should put the onus on procuring the drug on hospitals that treat the patients,” a doctor, who is at the forefront of Covid-19 efforts, told DH.

The government on Saturday warned of action under Goondas Act against those hoarding Remdesivir and increasing the price of oxygen. The state government began selling Remdesivir in Chennai from April-end and expanded it to four other cities.

“Remdesivir, an anti-viral primarily taken along with steroids, anticoagulants and antibiotics, is used to improve the outcome of treatment and survival rate in Covid-19. Remdesivir is not a magic wand that cures Covid-19. Social distancing and masks are still the solution.

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“People should realise it works along with a variety of other factors, and it is not indicated for those who don't have breathing issues,” Dr A Mohammed Hakkim, Emergency physician in Tiruchirapalli, told DH.

In its revised treatment protocol, the Tamil Nadu government has removed Ivermectin, after the World Health Organisation (WHO) said the drug does not work on Covid-19 patients. Another problem that doctors are facing in Tamil Nadu is use of steroids by patients in the first week of their infection without any medical advice.

Dharmapuri MP S Senthilkumar, a radiologist by profession, said many youngsters are losing their life due to intake of steroids immediately after they are infected with Covid-19. “This has to be checked immediately. Like Remdesivir, people have a lot of misconceptions about steroids. Steroids work, but not in the first week, and it is not needed for all patients. Since they are available over-the-counter, people misuse them,” he added.