Can Hydroxychloroquine, anti-malarial drug treat COVID-19 patients?

Recently, the much-touted hydroxychloroquine has been in the news for the treatment of coronavirus disease. Does this medicine work against COVID-19? Let’s see the hydroxychloroquine uses, hydroxychloroquine side effects and its impact on COVID-19 in this blog.

What is hydroxychloroquine?

Hydroxychloroquine is a medicine that treats malaria, lupus erythematosus and rheumatoid arthritis. This medicine comes only as an oral tablet. It is first approved to treat Malaria, which is a disease transmitted through the bite of an infected mosquito. Hydroxychloroquine is not effective against all strains of Malaria. In the United States, it is sold under the brand name Plaquenil.

Is hydroxychloroquine effective for COVID-19?

Many people are influenced by reports on Twitter and in news, but the findings are yet to be backed by proper clinical trials.

In a clinical trial conducted in China, patients with relatively mild COVID-19 who were treated with hydroxychloroquine showed significant improvement when compared to patients who were treated with standard care alone. But a combination of hydroxychloroquine medicine and azithromycin was evaluated in France to the patients with COVID-19 showed clinical improvement. Though these findings look positive, the hydroxychloroquine benefits of this drug are now in question. There isn’t much information about the patients who received this drug, or what dose they took and for how long.

Some studies show that they had to stop the treatment after using the combination of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin due to side effects. Some used only hydroxychloroquine and there were adverse effects of hydroxychloroquine though they were mostly mild. Few studies did not have a control group to compare patients.

There has been no proper evidence or studies showing that hydroxychloroquine work for prevention. But hydroxychloroquine can interfere with heart rhythms, leading to sudden cardiac arrest.

Hydroxychloroquine side effects

All medicines may have side effects. The most common adverse effects of this medicine are stomach pain, diarrhoea, headache, vomiting, nausea, liver and kidney problems and nervous system problems. It can also cause serious heart rhythm complications. Children are very sensitive to this drug.

In Australia, clinical trials continue. But Canada warns against the use of hydroxychloroquine as it can have serious side effects. As there are insufficient clinical data, the safety and efficacy of the medicine are still unclear. But there are two big multi-centric trials which will be done for pre & post-exposure prophylaxis amongst healthcare workers and high-risk contacts. However, Hydroxychloroquine is one of the better options to be used for prevention and treatment as of now.

Boost Your Immune System for Protection Against Coronavirus

Prevention of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)

Coronavirus is spreading its tentacles far and wide at a swift pace and has reached almost all the continents of the globe. It is no secret that prevention is always better than cure. So, rather than panicking the ideal thing would be to look at ways of prevention of coronavirus disease. An important observation derived thus far about the infection is that stronger your immune system, higher are your chances of keeping the infection at bay. Even in the unfortunate scenario of you getting laid down by the virus, a stronger immune system will give you a brighter chance of recovering faster without any serious complications.

Now the question is how to boost the immune system naturally? There is a range of immune system boosters available as a part of a balanced diet. If you follow a balanced diet on a daily basis, you are bound to have a stronger immune system naturally. To be on the safer side, you may pay more attention to include a lot of immune system booster foods such as fruits and vegetables in your regular diet. Also, there are some lifestyle habits to boost the immune system that if followed regularly will keep you in good stead to ward of not just the attack of coronavirus, but any other disease per se.  

Ways to increase immune system functioning

• Include plenty of immune systems booster foods:

Fruits and vegetables are one of the powerful immune system boosters available to mankind. They deliver the necessary antioxidants to the body that help it fight off sickness. Vitamin A is especially effective in keeping the mucosal linings of the nose and lungs in top working condition to defend against an attack of the coronavirus. Vegetables such as sweet potatoes, butternut squash, and beetroot are rich in beta-carotene that the body converts to vitamin A. Fruits such as orange, mango, apricots, and melon are also great to include as a part of your daily diet.   

• A healthy dose of vitamin D:

Vitamin D helps stimulate peptide production, the components capable of fighting off bacteria, fungi and viruses eventually ensuring the prevention of coronavirus disease. Include eggs and fatty fish in your regular diet and get some sunlight while taking vitamin D supplements if necessary.

• Hand hygiene:

Good hygiene habits can go a long way in keeping you healthy. Coronavirus is understood to spreading via droplets from coughs and sneezes. When you touch surfaces that have these droplets, you are likely to pick up and be infected with the virus. So, it is a good idea to follow a proper hand hygiene routine. Remember to wash your hands properly and thoroughly with soap and water before and after you use the restroom before you prepare food and put food into your mouth. Also, remember to sneeze or cough only into a handkerchief or a tissue.

Follow the steps given below to the ensure germ-free hands:

• Wet your hands
  • Apply soap and rub your hands together to lather the palms, back of the hands, between the fingers and under the nails
  • Scrub your hands for at least 20 seconds while humming the “Happy Birthday” song from beginning to end twice.
  • Rinse your hands thoroughly under clean, running water
  • Air dry your hands or wipe them using a clean towel
  • In case you don’t have access to soap and water, you may use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol content. 

• Quality sleep:

If you short-change on sleep, you are leaving the doors open for the viruses to barge into your body as a sleep-deprived body is not good enough to fight an infection attack. So, get plenty of sleep to remain fighting fit.

• Exercise:

Regular exercise ensures good blood circulation that in turn allows the immune cells to travel the entire body more effectively. Therefore, exercising is one of the ways to increase immune system functioning. Five or more days a week of exercise is how to boost the immune system naturally that will keep any virus including coronavirus attack at bay. In the eventuality of you catching the virus, a regular exercise routine can help you recover quickly with less severe symptoms.

• Reduce stress:

Stress can seriously hamper the working of your immune system. It causes the body to release cortisol, the hormone that boosts inflammation and paves the way for a host of diseases to attack the body. Stress also interferes with the performance of white blood cells, the soldiers of your body, leaving your immune system susceptible to infections. Given the serious repercussions of stress, it is in your best interest to reduce stress in your own way. Relaxation techniques including breathing can greatly help you calm down and successfully manage stress. 

• Quit drinking and smoking:

Heavy drinking depletes the body of immune cells and reduces the lymphocytes. With a compromised immunity, you are at risk of catching the coronavirus and not be able to effectively fight it off.

Smoking weakens the lungs leaving smokers vulnerable to the novel coronavirus attack. They are also likely to suffer more as compared to non-smokers in terms of the severity of symptoms.

Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19): All you want to know

Overview

If the outbreak and spread of the coronavirus disease is making you lose sleep, then read on to know everything about this disease. Armed with the right information, you can take the appropriate measures to keep yourself and your loved ones safe from contracting the disease.

What Is a Coronavirus?

Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that were first identified in the 1960s and found in animals as well as humans.  They get their name from their crown-like shape. They are known to cause illnesses in humans ranging from common cold to the more severe diseases such as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) that had kept the globe on tenterhooks a few years back.

In the December of 2019, a new type of coronavirus caused the outbreak of the coronavirus disease. The World Health Organisation or the WHO officially named the virus 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCOV) and the disease as COVID-19 which can be fatal. On the 11^th of February, 2019, the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses named 2019-nCOV as “severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2” or SARS-CoV-2 due to its genetic similarity to the virus that causes SARS. COVID was first reported in Wuhan, China, but quickly spread throughout the world.

Where did the new coronavirus come from?

People who had visited the Huanan seafood market, a local seafood and animal market in Wuhan were the first victims of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. So, the officials believe that the virus was most likely transmitted from an animal to humans, but the animal is yet to be identified. A new study, however, reveals that the genetic sequence of the SARS-CoV-2 is about 88% similar to two coronaviruses that originated in bats. But the Huanan seafood market didn’t sell bats, and therefore the search for the animal that acted as the medium of transmission of the virus to humans is still on.

How does the coronavirus spread between people?

Most coronaviruses spread just like cold-causing viruses in the following manner:

• Infected people coughing and sneezing
• Touching the hands or face of infected people
• Touching the things infected people have touched such as doorknobs

Though researchers are still trying to understand the exact way that SARS-CoV-2 spreads, but respiratory droplets produced from coughs and sneezes are the most likely transmitters. Tests show the presence of the virus in the patients’ stool making fecal contamination a strong transmitter too.

Why you need to know about this new virus

As of 31^st January, 2020, WHO has recorded 10,000 confirmed cases and 213 confirmed deaths due to the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Though 99% of the cases and all of the deaths have been in China, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirms that 26 countries have reported cases including 6 cases in the US. There is no denying the fact that in the connected world of today, these numbers will only rise because each infected person could potentially spread the infection to many others. It is, therefore, quite important to get reliable information regarding the virus and the disease to protect yourself and your loved ones.

Symptoms of COVID

Symptoms of COVID are very similar to common cold and include:

• Fever
• Cough
• Shortness of breath

These symptoms show up anytime between 2 and 14 days after exposure to the infection. Infections can range from mild to serious and may cause fatality if it leads to pneumonia, respiratory failure or septic shock. The elderly, children and people with weakened immune systems are more at risk of death. In case of any suspicion, please take the patients to one of the wellness centres in Bangalore.

Prevention Measures against Corona Virus

Since there is no vaccine for SARS-CoV-2 as of now, preventions seems to be the best cure for COVID and following are some of the simple yet effective measures to it at bay:

• Wash your hands thoroughly with soap and warm water or with an alcohol-based hand sanitizer, especially before consuming any food
• Keep your hands and fingers away from your eyes, nose, and mouth
• Avoid close contact with people who are infected
• Avoid visiting crowded places and if unavoidable, wear a mask for sure
• While visiting hospitals wear a mask and clean your hands with an alcohol-based hand sanitizer as soon as you come out
• Avoid non-veg food especially from hotels as we are unsure about the hygiene measures adopted there to store and cook meat
• Drink warm or hot water
• If a family member is experiencing the symptoms of common cold including cough, sneezing and fever, take him/her to a general physician in Bangalore, more so if the person is elderly
• Fume the house with dhoop, sambrani or cow dung cakes as they are known to be excellent disinfectants

Simple home remedies to strengthen your immune system

Following are some very simple home remedies that can give a boost to your immune system and keep you fighting fit against a lot of germs, viruses and infections:

• Boil milk with turmeric and consume it about half an hour before you go to sleep everyday
• Begin your mornings with a concoction of honey, lemon and warm water
• Take a clove of garlic daily
• Take probiotic supplements.

Beware of false and misleading posts in Social media about coronavirus

Just like the COVID-19 is spreading its fangs over the world, so is the misinformation about it. The social media is an easy way for pranksters to spread false and misleading information. There have been numerous instances of people sharing unverified news items and unproven advice/tips for coronavirus treatment.

As a responsible citizen of the world and social media user, it is every one’s responsibility to get their information from trustworthy sources only. In addition, refrain from forwarding and reposting every piece of information you receive without checking its veracity.