Timely treatment needed for Covid

Dr Dhruv Chaudhary, head of pulmonary and critical care medicine, PGIMSROHTAK, who is also Haryana’s nodal officer for Covid-19, was in the city on Friday to streamline the auditing of Covid-19 deaths and to study the prospect of establishing a convalescent plasma bank. Dr Chaudhary spoke to Archana Mishra about the necessity of getting timely treatment and the limited community transmission in the city.

You are part of the task force coordinating with doctors from AIIMS, New Delhi, to analyse deaths of Covid-19 patients without co-morbidities. What have you learnt so far?

The study is ongoing. The initial data, however, shows a third of those who died without any co-morbidity, had obesity. Such patients had sudden death due to heart failure.to get a better picture, reporting of deaths by hospitals has to be improved.

What are the issues with reporting deaths and how do you plan to improve it?

It is critical to ascertain the root cause to reduce the toll count, for which there has to be a uniform reporting pattern. We need to know when the patient was transported to the hospital, when the diagnosis and complications started, etc. In the past, 10 patients were brought dead.there should be no delay in diagnosis.

Testing numbers have increased and so have Covid-19 cases. Are we seeing community spread of the infection?

These tests are vigorously conducted for active surveillance. For this, the central government conducted the sero-survey. In Haryana, especially in Gurugram, there is evidence that suggests infection was spreading at a fast pace. Certain pockets saw outbreak in large numbers. There was limited ‘community transmission’ which has now stabilised.

What is the current status on setting up of convalescent plasma bank in the city?

In Gurugram, a private hospital is offering plasma therapy. The service is not available in a government hospital. Teams are coordinating with Rotary blood bank and people who can donate plasma. The plan is to have a plasma pool. An SOP is being prepared.