Remdesivir no life-saving drug in COVID-19 Maha task force

    Pune, Apr 14 (PTI) Expressing concern over the panic
created by the shortage of Remdesivir, an anti-viral drug,
Maharashtra's COVID-19 task force has said that it was not a
life-saving medicine in coronavirus treatment, and strongly
advised against its "rampant and irrational abuse".
    The task force also suggested that medical oxygen
should be used judiciously during the coronavirus pandemic.
    The task force, headed by Dr Sanjay Oak, made these
observations in the advisory it issued after its meeting held
on Monday.
    Remdesivir is not a life-saving drug in coronavirus
and it is helpful during the second to ninth day of illness
and not thereafter, it said.
    "It only arrests the replication of the virus and
therefore reduces the hospital stay and convalescence of the
patient by one-two days. This leads to a reduction inthe
hospital stay by two days at the most. It is possible to save
patients even without Remedesivir," the task force said in the
advisory.
    It added that though it would like to leave the
decision to use the drug to the discretion of the treating
doctor, it strongly advises against the rampant, irrational
abuse of this drug.
    It urged the state government to issue guidelines to
hospitals to suspend all their routine work that consumes
oxygen.
    "Cancel all routine surgeries and routine admissions
to hospitals. This will save a significant amount of oxygen,"
the advisory reads.
    The task force asked that oxygen audit committees be
formed in hospitals to regulate the oxygen usage.
    It also asked the hospitals to change the target
oxygen saturation level to 93 per cent to 95 per cent.
    It said that patients be asked to "awake prone
ventilation" method to improve the oxygen saturation and stop
the use of high flow nasal oxygen machines (HFNO) until
further notice as it uses a large quantity of oxygen.
    It issued guidelines on managing home quarantined
patients, and suggested that close monitoring is important.
    The task force also observed that the advisories are
not being strictly adhered to in letter and spirit. PTI SPK
NP NP

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)