Dr. Sushila Kataria

Description:Background: After declaration of COVID- 19 as pandemic by WHO, countries adopted several measures to contain the spread as well as test and treat the patients. Further, as no effective management protocols to address this pandemic were available, a need was felt to explore the integration of modern and traditional medicines to treat COVID- 19 cases. Objective: To undertake a study with Ayurveda formulation as add on to existing standard of care (SOC) and to compare the outcomes in terms of patient acceptability, the time to clinical recovery, hospital stay as well as any signs of drug-herb interaction between the Ayurveda formulation and the SOC. Material and methods: An exploratory nonrandomized prospective study has been undertaken for comparing the outcomes of traditional Ayurvedic classical formulation of Tinospora cordifolia (Guduchi) and Piper longum (Pippali) as an add on to standard of care (SOC) using modern medicine with SOC alone. This has been done in mild and moderate COVID- 19 cases, at a tertiary care integrative Medicine hospital in the National Capital Region, Gurgaon, India. The outcomes have been evaluated in terms of the duration of hospital stay, the time to clinical recovery, safety and non- interference/interaction of Ayurvedic and Further, long term impact of COVID- 19 treatment has been evaluated using quality of life questionnaire after 3 months of discharge. Results: Findings of present study reveals that the Ayurveda add-on formulation of T. cordifolia (Guduchi) and P. longum (Pippali) has reduced the length of hospital stay and improve the recovery time. General feeling of wellbeing and activity levels were better in the 3 month follow-up post discharge in the Ayurveda add-on group. Conclusion: Addition of Ayurveda formulation has reduced the time of recovery and duration of hospital stay. However, this formulation needs further investigated to provide more information on effective and safe herbal add-on to SOC for better outcomes to treatment of COVID-19 disease.

Description:Background & objectives: The COVID-19 pandemic has caused significant global morbidity and mortality. As the vaccination was rolled out with prioritization on healthcare workers (HCWs), it was desirable to generate evidence on effectiveness of vaccine in prevailing real-life situation for policy planning. The objective of the study was to evaluate the safety, effectiveness and immunogenicity of COVID-19 vaccination among HCWs in a tertiary care hospital. Methods: This prospective observational study was undertaken on the safety, immunogenicity and effectiveness of the ChAdOx1 nCoV- 19 coronavirus vaccine (Recombinant) during the national vaccine roll out in January-March 2021, in a tertiary care hospital, New Delhi, India. Results: The vaccine was found to be safe, with local pain, fever and headache as the most common adverse events of milder nature which generally lasted for two days. The adverse events following vaccination were lower in the second dose as compared to the first dose. The vaccine was immunogenic, with seropositivity, which was 51 per cent before vaccination, increasing to 77 per cent after single dose and 98 per cent after two doses. Subgroup analysis indicated that those with the past history of COVID-19 attained seropositivity of 98 per cent even with single dose. The incidence of reverse transcription (RT)-PCR positive COVID-19 was significantly lower among vaccinated (11.7%) as compared to unvaccinated (22.2%). Seven cases of moderate COVID-19 needing hospitalization were seen in the unvaccinated and only one such in the vaccinated group. The difference was significant between the fully vaccinated (10.8%) and the partially vaccinated (12.7%). The hazard of COVID-19 infection was higher among male, age >50 yr and clinical role in the hospital. After adjustment for these factors, the hazard of COVID-19 infection among unvaccinated was 2.09 as compared to fully vaccinated. Vaccine effectiveness was 52.2 per cent in HCWs. Interpretation & conclusions: ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 coronavirus vaccine (Recombinant) was safe, immunogenic as well as showed effectiveness against the COVID-19 disease (CTRI/2021/01/030582).