Gangrene, hearing loss suggest Delta variant more severe, say doctors

Delta, the coronavirus variant that triggered India's devastating second wave of the pandemic, is definitely highly contagious, according to experts and multiple studies. Now, doctors in India draw from their experience that it is also possibly more severe than most other known variants. Blood clots and hearing impairment are just two of the many severe conditions Indian doctors have linked with the new strain.

: What is the Delta variant of COVID-19?

Delta or B.1.617.2 variant was first detected in India last year and has spread to 60 countries over the past six months. A recent study by an Indian government panel stated the variant was the "primary cause" behind India's deadly second wave and is 50% more infectious than a strain first identified in the UK. It is now sparking outbreaks in numerous other countries.

Conditions: Several patients developed blood clots, leading to gangrene

Some coronavirus patients in India developed micro thrombi - small but severe blood clots that caused the affected tissue to die and develop gangrene, said Ganesh Manudhane, a Mumbai-based cardiologist, according to Bloomberg. Manudhane treated eight such patients at the Seven Hills Hospital during the past two months, as compared to three or four cases throughout last year.

Fact: What is gangrene?

Gangrene is the death of body tissue due to a lack of blood flow or a bacterial infection. Signs and symptoms of the condition may include discoloration of the skin, swelling, and severe pain, among others. Treatments typically include surgery, antibiotics, and hyperbaric oxygen therapy.

Conditions: Hearing impairment, tonsillitis also seen in several patients

Meanwhile, some COVID-19 patients sought treatment for hearing loss, swelling around the neck, and severe tonsillitis, said Dr. Hetal Marfatia, an ENT surgeon at Mumbai's King Edward Memorial Hospital. "Every person is showing different symptoms" during the current wave, she was quoted as saying. Cases of Mucormycosis or "Black fungus" - a rare fungal infection - also reached record highs in India this year.

Vaccinations: How does it affect the course of vaccinations?

Emerging scientific evidence indicates that Delta and other variants may be able to evade antibodies generated from vaccination. Experts hence want pharmaceutical companies to tweak the formula for existing vaccines or develop new ones. "New vaccines have to prepared with new variants in mind," said Dr. Abdul Ghafur. "We can't get ahead of the virus, but at least we can keep up with it."

This is only for your information, kindly take the advice of your doctor for medicines, exercises and so on.   

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Weight Loss, Lung Lesions Among Severe Symptoms as New Covid Variant Found; Covaxin May Help

Warning of severe symptoms, Pune’s National Institute of Virology has found a new Covid-19 variant — B.1.1.28.2 — through genome sequencing of samples from international travelers from the United Kingdom and Brazil.

According to a report in Times of India, the findings of the pathogenicity evaluation show increased disease severity and point towards the need for screening of vaccine efficacy. The findings of the pre-print study have been published online on bioRxiv.

The new variant can lead to body weight loss, viral replication in the respiratory tract, lung lesions and was found to cause severe lung pathology in infected Syrian hamster model, the study said. However, two-dose Covaxin regimen has shown to significantly boost antibody and neutralising efficacy against the variant. This was found in an uncorrected manuscript of a separate study by NIV.

The study on the new variant pointed towards the necessity of genomic surveillance and characterisation of SARS-CoV-2 variants that will help to understand their pathogenicity and immune escape potential for preparedness of counter-measures.

According to the report, genome sequencing labs are looking at mutants, which have significant potential of severely affecting disease transmission. Currently, 10 national labs under Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genome Sequencing Consortia have sequenced around 30,000 samples. The government plans to ramp up genome sequencing and recently added 18 more labs to the consortium.

The detection of the new variant comes a week after the WHO said that only one strain of the Covid-19 Delta variant first detected in India was now considered “of concern”, while two other strains had been downgraded.

The B.1.617 variant of the virus, which has in part been blamed for India’s explosive outbreak, has been dubbed a triple mutant variant since it is split into three lineages.

The UN health agency last month declared the entire strain a “variant of concern”, or VOC, but on June 2, it said only one of the sub-lineages deserved that label. “It has become evident that greater public health risks are currently associated with B.1.617.2, while lower rates of transmission of other lineages have been observed,” the World Health Organization said in its weekly epidemiological update on the pandemic.

This is only for your information, kindly take the advice of your doctor for medicines, exercises and so on.   

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Dos and don'ts for people at home amid second wave of coronavirus

More than one year since the COVID-19 outbreak, India is still witnessing the worst phase of the virus. The country, going through the second wave of coronavirus, has reported more than 2 lakh cases every day for the past few days. The unprecedented surge has taken India's total caseload to 1.56 crore. 

While more than 1.32 crore people have recovered, over 21.57 lakh people are still struggling, with some of them getting treatment at the hospitals, while some are recovering at their homes.

The new COVID-19 variant reportedly spreads easily and quicker than any other variant. 

In addition to the usual COVID-19 symptoms like fever, pain in muscles, dry and persistent cough, and loss of smell and taste, many people this time are witnessing additional symptoms like conjunctivitis, headache, diarrhoea, and discoloured fingers and toes.

Dos and don'ts for people at home:

If you have symptoms like mild fever, aches and pains, nasal congestion, runny nose, sore throat, diarrhoea or loss of taste and smell-

Do's: Isolate yourself and stay away from family members in a separate room, preferably with a separate washroom. Keep all your things including clothes, utensils away from your family members. Take medicine for fever after an online consultation. Do keep checking your fever and oxygen levels and keep taking plenty of fluids.

Dont's: Don't take any medicines like steroids or Remdesivir at home. Do consult a doctor before taking medicines.

If you have symptoms like cough, difficulty in breathing, high-grade fever for over a week, oxygen saturation less than 94 per cent:

Do's: Keep an eye on your fever and oxygen saturation. Keep consulting a doctor over call or text. Look for a hospital bed if your oxygen level goes down, also, look for an oxygen cylinder provider. 

Don'ts: Don't take any medication without a doctor's consultation. Don't stay at home and move to a hospital if your oxygen level goes down before 90%.
 

This is only for your information, kindly take the advice of your doctor for medicines, exercises and so on.     

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https://gseasyrecipes.blogspot.com. feel free to view for easy, simple and healthy recipes    
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