Judicious use of oxygen important, says Dr Guleria

NEW DELHI AIIMS Delhi Director Dr Randeep Guleria on Monday in a press conference asserted that judicious use of oxygen is important to tackle the second wave of COVID-19.

“We have to reduce the number of cases and use hospital resources optimally. The judicious use of oxygen is very important. Right now, there is an unnecessary panic, which is causing more harm than good,” Dr Randeep Guleria said.

“Unnecessary shortage of essential drug is being created in the market. Oxygen is an important treatment strategy for COVID-19, but misuse of it is also an important factor. If your oxygen saturation is 92, 93, 94, 95, 96 or over 96 it means that there is sufficient oxygen in your body (blood) and enough oxygen is reaching your organs,” the doctor said.

If you are using medical oxygen in the range of 94 or 95 (oxygen saturation) to upgrade it at a level of 98 or 99, this is a misuse of oxygen, he said. The same medical oxygen can be given to one whose oxygen saturation below 90 or at 80.

He further said if the oxygen saturation range is reducing then one should contact his/her doctor. Guleria said that hospital authorities need to ensure that incidents of leakage of oxygen should not take place.

Talking about the use of Remdesivir anti-viral drug, Guleria said, “You should not get into a panic mode if Remdesivir is not available, it is only useful in moderate to severe cases, it is not useful if we administer in an early stage or mild illness, Remdesivir has not shown mortality benefit,” he said.

“If the patient is taking Remdesivir on the first or second day of mild illness, they are misusing the drug; it will generate more side effects as they are consuming it unnecessary,” he further said. The doctor also repeated that in Covid-19, 85 per cent of patients will have a mild illness, which can be treated at home.