Do not ignore flu symptoms: Docs

Coimbatore: The death of a 28-year-old man on Sunday has led to the public health department and doctors sounding a note of caution for people with flu-like symptoms, in order to convince them to get a check-up done immediately.
Doctors said they are noticing many asymptomatic Covid-19 patients undergoing rapid changes in their lungs, and a drop in oxygen levels. “We advise people with even slight flu-like symptoms to contact Coimbatore Medical College Hospital or primary health centres and get tested if the doctor recommends,” said deputy director of public health, Dr G Ramesh Kumar.
Many patients go into a state of “happy hypoxia”, where they do not realize that their oxygen saturation levels drop below 94%. They say it is these patients who end up sinking suddenly, like what is being seen in Chennai.
“Because many of them do not realise that their oxygen levels are dropping or that their lungs are seeing changes. In the current lot of patients, at least 50% of them are seeing symptoms and lung changes,” said ESI Hospital dean, Dr Nirmala.
Speaking about how treatment protocols for patients have changed, in the main Covid-19 hospital in the district, hospital doctors said the initial lot of symptomatic patients, who mainly comprised of the New Delhi conference attendees, included hydroxychloroquine, azithromycin, Oseltamivir, vitamin C and multi-vitamins.
“However, with more patients now seeing lung changes, we are administering some patients with steroids, giving them high-flow oxygen, proning them and giving them antibiotics additionally,” said the dean. “We are also now trying out a new antiparasitic drug called Ivermectin on some patients,” she added. “We also have decided not to put patients on ventilator as much as possible,” she added.
Doctors at ESI Hospital said one of the main contributors to this achievement is patients being detected early and brought it early. “We do chest CT immediately on arrival and if we see lung changes, start treating it accordingly before it worsens and becomes a full blow pneumonia,” said the covid-19 nodal officer for the hospital, Dr K Ganesamurthy.
The growing number of cases with lung changes, has led to many households, especially ones with senior citizens and people with co-morbidites, now buying pulsometers. “ It is quite scary to know that our oxygen saturation levels may be dropping, even before we have strong Covid-19 symptoms, and we honestly don’t know who has covid-19 and who doesn’t,” said R Thambiyannan, a resident of R S Puram, who reopened his hardware business more than a month back.