The curious case of South Asian countries and coronavirus

New Delhi: South Asia accounts for approximately 22 per cent of the world population but there are less than 25,000 cases here. This is less than the number of cases registered in the US everyday.

Even though only suspected cases are being tested in India, a mere 4.7 per cent of these tests are positive. The numbers are similar in other South Asian countries — 10 per cent of the total tests conducted are positive in Bangladesh and 5.1 per cent in Sri Lanka. In comparison, 19 per cent of tests are positive in America while 41.8 per cent are positive in France.

The rate of growth also seems to be slow. The rate at which the number of positive cases are doubling in India is approximately 11 days. Forty days after the first case was detected, both India and US had the same number of infections. However, another 15 days later, the US had 25 per cent more cases.

The reason for South Asia’s unique situation is not established yet. It could be the weather, the BCG vaccination program or hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) that so many people in India are given. HCQ was given in the National Malaria Eradication program in India.

New findings on hydroxychloroquine

Covid-19 turns the body’s immune system against itself and deaths occur due to cytokine storms. Cytokine storms refer to a situation when the immune system produces too many cytokines, which are proteins meant to stop the virus. This may lead to a connection between HCQ and Covid-19, as HCQ is used for autoimmune diseases. HCQ may be an immunomodulator — drugs used to modify or regulate the immune system.

A new study on HCQ from China on 150 patients has emerged in which trials were controlled and randomised. The study shows that HCQ doesn’t reduce viral load, however, it does improve the outcome for patients as it reduces the recovery time. The drug increases the number of white blood cells and many people with Covid-19 struggle because the number of white blood cells in their body goes down.

HCQ also decreases two common inflammation markers including C-Reactive Protein (CRP).

Remdesivir trials

US biopharmaceutical firm Gilead has started trials on their drug remdesivir. This is an antiviral drug which was originally invented for Ebola. The drug has shown progress in treating Covid-19, but the evidence is anecdotal. The new trials on the drug will be more systematic and they may establish if the drug works or not.

Remdesivir study was started on 53 severely ill patients on 10 April. The company plans to conduct larger trials, but more importantly, National Institute of Health of the United States will conduct Double-Blind Placebo-Controlled trials on more than 800 patients in late May.  WHO will conduct SOLIDARITY trial of remdesivir on more than 10,000 patients in which Indians will also participate in late June.

THE PRINT