Health

In early July, I came across the news of a COVID-positive woman who was in urgent need of hospitalisation. She was turned down by 16 hospitals because no beds were available. However the government, on its website, claimed they had sufficient beds. Santosh Doddaiah, 25, is the founder of Covidbeds.org. He and his team regularly update the website with accurate data on available hospital beds for COVID patients. Pic Credit: Santosh Doddaiah To understand the reality, I did some research, and then started calling hospitals listed on the website - around 140 of them. Shekar hospital, Bull Temple road, had…

The recent surge in COVID-19 cases in the city is a matter of great concern for Chennaites. Swati Amar unearths special problems of certain sections of people that are facing the pandemic differently. Baby on the Way Dr Priya Selvaraj, a fertility specialist, clinician and embryologist, and the assistant director of GG Hospital has been witness to how pregnant women are facing the COVID-19 situation: “We never stopped seeing pregnant patients during COVID (the pandemic). In fact, obstetrics care was one of the specialities where we instituted specific recommendations as per the norms of both international and national committees."” Dr Selvaraj…

Plasma therapy, also known as ‘convalescent plasma therapy’, is an experimental mode of treatment. It uses the blood plasma donated by patients who have recovered from COVID-19, as their bodies would have developed protective antibodies against the virus, to treat those with the virus. Usually used on patients who are not responding to conventional treatment, plasma therapy is currently helping many COVID-19 patients recover. How antibodies work When one contracts an infection, especially a viral infection, their recovery depends on the production of antibodies to fight the antigen (the virus, which in the current case, is COVID-19). These antibodies are…

In an online meeting with apartment RWA representatives on August 14, BBMP Commissioner N Manjunath Prasad clarified doubts on COVID management. The meeting covered the current rules on containment zones, festival permissions, waste management, quarantine and isolation guidelines, etc. BBMP Special Commissioner (Finance & IT) Rajendra Cholan, and Special Commissioner (Solid Waste Management & Animal Husbandry) Randeep D also attended the session. Following are some key questions answered at the meeting. Q: Will houses with COVID patients continue to be barricaded? Having received multiple complaints from citizens on inhuman barricading of COVID-positive houses, Manjunath clarified this practice would no longer…

Swati Patil can’t stop crying. It has been ten days since she lost her mother due to unavailability of a hospital bed. “If only we had got a bed for dialysis, she would still be alive today,” she said, holding her mother’s photo close to her heart. “There was nothing wrong with her,” says Swati. “She was coughing the other day and the family doctor mentioned that we go for a COVID-19 test. All of us tested negative except my mother. It took us four days to find a bed in the municipal-run Kasturba Hospital in Somwar Peth, which has…

Battling the COVID crisis in Pune, on paper, is an impressive team of high level city officials. Their war room is the Pune Smart City Command and Control centre set up by the Pune Smart City Development Corporation Ltd (PSCDL). Recent visits to the city by NCP President Sharad Pawar, his nephew, deputy chief minister and Guardian Minister of Pune, Ajit Pawar and Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray have only drawn into sharp focus the city’s struggle to contain the virus and the grim reality of many patients being turned away because of non-availability of hospital beds.  Pune’s high level COVID…

ಬೆಂಗಳೂರಿನಲ್ಲಿ ಕೋವಿಡ್ ಪ್ರಕರಣಗಳ ಸಂಖ್ಯೆ ಹೆಚ್ಚಿದ್ದರ ಹಿಂದೆಯೇ ಕೇಳಿಬಂದ ಬಹುಮುಖ್ಯ ದೂರು ಆಸ್ಪತ್ರೆಗಳ ಹಾಸಿಗೆ ಕೊರತೆ ಮತ್ತು ಚಿಕಿತ್ಸೆ ನಿರಾಕರಣೆ. ಇತ್ತೀಚೆಗೆ ರಾಮನಗರ ಜಿಲ್ಲೆಯ ಚಿಕ್ಕಮುದವಾಡಿ ಪ್ರಾಥಮಿಕ ಆರೋಗ್ಯ ಕೇಂದ್ರದಲ್ಲಿ ಕೋವಿಡ್ ಚಿಕಿತ್ಸೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ತೊಡಗಿದ್ದ ವೈದ್ಯ ಡಾ. ಮಂಜುನಾಥ್ ಎಸ್.ಟಿ.  ಚಿಕಿತ್ಸೆ ದೊರೆಯದೆ ಕೊನೆಯುಸಿರೆಳೆದರು. ಬೆಂಗಳೂರಿನ ಮೂರು ಆಸ್ಪತ್ರೆಗಳು ಅವರನ್ನು ಒಳರೋಗಿಯಾಗಿ ದಾಖಲಿಸಿಕೊಳ್ಳಲು ನಿರಾಕರಿಸಿ ಹಿಂದಕ್ಕೆ ಕಳುಹಿಸಿದ್ದವು. ಇಷ್ಟೆಲ್ಲಾ ಆದ ಮೇಲೂ ಸರ್ಕಾರ ಮಾತ್ರ ಕೋವಿಡ್ ಚಿಕಿತ್ಸೆಗೆ ಅಗತ್ಯವಿರುವ ಹಾಸಿಗೆಗಳು ಲಭ್ಯವಿವೆ ಎಂದು ಹೇಳುತ್ತಲೇ ಬಂದಿದೆ. ಜೂನ್ ತಿಂಗಳ ಕೊನೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ಸರ್ಕಾರ ಒಂದು ಆದೇಶ ಹೊರಡಿಸಿ ಖಾಸಗಿ ಆಸ್ಪತ್ರೆಗಳು ತಮ್ಮ ಸಾಮರ್ಥ್ಯದ ಅರ್ಧದಷ್ಟು ಹಾಸಿಗೆಗಳನ್ನು ಕೋವಿಡ್ ರೋಗಿಗಳಿಗಾಗಿ ಮೀಸಲಿಡಬೇಕು ಎಂದು ಹೇಳಿತು. ಜುಲೈ 7ರಂದು ವೈದ್ಯಕೀಯ ಶಿಕ್ಷಣ ಸಚಿವ ಡಾ.ಕೆ. ಸುಧಾಕರ್ ಅವರು ಖಾಸಗಿ ಆಸ್ಪತ್ರೆಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಕೋವಿಡ್ ರೋಗಿಗಳಿಗಾಗಿ ಮೀಸಲಿಟ್ಟಿರುವ ಹಾಸಿಗೆಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಶೇಕಡಾ 78ರಷ್ಟು ಖಾಲಿ ಇವೆ ಎಂದರು. ಆಗಸ್ಟ್ 4ರಂದು ಈ ಲೇಖಕ  ಬಿಬಿಎಂಪಿಯ ಹಾಸಿಗೆ ಲಭ್ಯತೆಯ ಆಯಾ ಕ್ಷಣದ…

Translated by Sandhya Raju புது தில்லியை அடுத்து, ₹2.34 கோடி செலவில் சென்னை ராஜீவ் காந்தி அரசு மருத்துவமனையில் பிளாஸ்மா வங்கி ஜூலை மாதம் 24-ம் தேதி தொடங்கப்பட்டது. கோவிட் தடுப்பூசி இன்னும் சோதனை செயல்பாட்டில் உள்ள நிலையில் இந்நோய்க்கு நிரூபிக்கப்பட்ட சிகிச்சை இன்னும் இல்லை என்றாலும், பிளாஸ்மா சிகிச்சை நிகழ்வுகள் சில சாதகமான முடிவுகளை அளித்துள்ளது. இருப்பினும் மருத்துவ பரிசோதனைகள் தொடர்ந்து நடைபெற்று வருகின்றன. கான்வேலசன்ட் பிளாஸ்மா சிகிச்சை என்றால் என்ன? பிளாஸ்மா வங்கி செயல்பாடு என்ன? யார் பிளாஸ்மா கொடையாளி ஆகலாம்? சென்னையில் எங்கு பிளாஸ்மா நன்கொடை அளிக்கலாம்? இது போன்ற பல்வேறு பொதுவான கேள்விகளுக்கு பதில் அளிக்கும் வகையில் இந்த வழிகாட்டி தொகுக்கப்பட்டுள்ளது? பிளாஸ்மா சிகிச்சை என்றால் என்ன? கோவிட் தொற்றை இது முற்றிலும் போக்குமா? தொற்று ஏற்பட்டு குணமான நபரின் உடலிலிருந்து பிளாஸ்மா ( இரத்தத்தின் உள்ள வைக்கோல் நிற, திரவக் கூறு) எடுக்கப்பட்டு…

Kulsum Khatun and husband, a rickshaw puller, are residents of Jagdamba camp in Sheikh Sarai. Over the last few months of lockdown in the capital, none of them were able to find any work. “My two daughters, aged 7 and 9, study in a government school in Malviya Nagar (South Delhi),” said Kusum, “Mid-day meals were very important for us since we hardly make enough to feed them twice a day. Now, even that has stopped. We received around Rs 95 in March but nothing since then.” On March 23rd, seven days after the COVID crisis forced closure of all…

Wearing Bluetooth earbuds and facing a mobile screen Gowri Gnanasambanthan strains to hold a forearm plank. Her instructor joins in on a WhatsApp video call, teaching her the right way of doing it.  Ever since the lockdown in March, Gowri's apartment terrace has become her gym. “I can’t work out alone.  I have a WhatsApp group with a close circle of friends where we share videos, take on challenges and work out together. My husband is my workout partner. This motivates me a lot," she says. Gowri has not let stress and boredom inflicted by the lockdown disrupt her fitness…