The Indian journal of tuberculosis
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In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic caused by a novel corona virus, health care personnel are at increased risk of acquiring the infection. In preparation for the management of health care personnel that are likely to be infected, we looked in to the data collected during the Influenza pandemic in 2009, caused by a novel strain of H1N1 influenza called swine flu. The care of healthcare personnel in our institution, who had an acute febrile respiratory illness (AFRI) during that period was routed through a single channel using a uniform protocol. We retrospectively analysed the available data, during the initial four months of the pandemic, to draw lessons from it. ⋯ Health care personnel are at increased risk of acquiring infection. Our study demonstrated that students and office staff were the most susceptible. Unprotected exposure to unknown infectious patients and relatives is likely to have been an important factor. Though the mode of transmission is similar, compared to H1N1, COVID-19 is associated with different comorbidities and has significantly higher mortality. Therefore, in preparation for the COVID-19 pandemic, the personal protective equipment of the healthcare personnel need to be escalated.
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COVID 19 infection is unarguably the worst pandemic of this century. Till date there is no promising drug and vaccine available to treat this deadly viral infection. ⋯ The paucity of clinical evidences of an unequivocal beneficial effect of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine on COVID-19 has resulted in the passionate use of the drug for moderate to severe cases only and stimulated the need for large clinical trials for this and other molecules. In this review, we describe in brief the mechanism of action, the clinical studies, factors for cardiac toxicity, guidelines and future directions for hydroxychloroquine use in management of COVID-19 infection.
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Review Historical Article
Lessons to be learnt from 100 year old 1918 influenza pandemic viz a viz 2019 corona pandemic with an eye on NTEP.
The article is about the 1918 H1N1 flu pandemic also called the "Spanish flu" which killed 50 million plus people worldwide, and the coronavirus pandemic (Covid-19) which has spread in the world at an alarming pace. As of now there are 11,327,790 cases and 532,340 deaths globally. Aim of this article is to draw conclusions and share knowledge from both the pandemics and apply these lessons in other health programmes.