Truth of COVID19 Treatment and Medicines

Today almost everyone know that COVID19 is a viral disease caused by a virus named SARS-CoV-2, which is a coronavirus. But what most of us don't know is that most of the viral diseases have got no medicine to cure a patient. Now you may ask if there is no medicine then what are these hospitals doing with millions of infected patients. The answer is that these hospitals are giving them symptomatic treatment. 

What is symptomatic Treatment ?

Symptomatic treatment is a treatment that eases the symptoms but don't treats the actual cause of disease. Such treatment is our helplessness as we don't have a particular medicine for COVID19. In absence of a sure-shot treatment we need to atleast treat the symptoms like fever and breathing problems with some other well tried medicines.

Antibiotics in COVID19 treatment

Usage of antibiotics is not recommended in COVID19 patients unless symptoms of bacterial infection exist. However some symptoms of COVID19 are similar to some bacterial infections, so medical practitioners recommend some tests before starting any antibiotic course.

Due to non-availability of any prominent medicine for COVID19, doctors use antibiotics in some countries to treat it just as a symptomatic treatment. However usage of high dosage of antibiotics have their own side-effects. Broad-spectrum antibiotics used in such treatment may heavily disturb the good bacteria balance in our body. 

Steroids in COVID19 treatment

Steroids reduce the inflammation and suppress the immune system. Among critical patients of COVID19, severe inflammation is noticed during the second week. Dexamethasone, a corticosteroid is widely used in COVID19 treatment. WHO says that it should be given only to the critical COVID19 patients, but due to absence of a medicine it is widely used among most of the patients.   

Outbreak of Black Fungus

Outbreak of Black Fungus during the second wave of COVID19 in India has raised concerns about the treatment given to patients. Antibiotics and Steroids given to patients might have saved some of them, but reduced functioning of their immune system to a dangerous level.  It has given an open invitation to black fungus, which is found almost everywhere in the air, to infect those recently recovered patients.

Role of Placebo in COVID19 treatment

Do you know that according to a report published in "the week" 90% of COVID19 patients recovered after using fake remdesivir injection that contained only glucose water and salt. What saved those patients ? Was it glucose or something else ? It was the placebo effect. That fake medicine gave those patients the necessary hope and a false belief that they have got the sure-shot medicine of COVID19. At present there are no sure-shot medicine for COVID19, just like most of the other viral diseases. So our own body plays the most important role in treating the disease. After getting some symptomatic treatment, if a placebo gives us the necessary psychological boost then it is a better option than high dosage of those medicine that make us prone to various other side effects.

Most of you might not know that original medicines go through a trial named placebo-controlled trial, before getting a clearance. In this trial the medicine is compared with a placebo, to known if it performs better than a placebo. This trial is a part of regular process, because doctors know that placebo works.

Role of Psychological Motiviation in COVID19 treatment

This is one of the most important keys in this treatment. A number of people just surrender to disease after knowing that they are COVID19 positive. The fear and stress kills you more than the disease itself. Our stress and fear makes our body and immune system less capable to fight the infection. So psychological motivation plays an important. Just make the patient believe that he has got the best medicine and he/she will surely recover. Lies should not be a part of our lives but such one lie can motivate the person to beat the disease. On the other hand patient should be kept away from death news due to COVID19, that are circulating everywhere on internet. Positivity and our eagerness to survive can do magic with our immune system.

Role of Alternative Medicine in COVID19 Treatment

However most of the scientific community don't consider it as a treatment, but alternative medicine is a part of our social life. Every country have its own local system of medicine, which is backed by strong faith of local people. If there are no side-effects of the alternative medicine then there is no harm in using them, as your belief can do magic with your body. Some of the very famous systems of alternative medicines are Ayurveda, Homeopathy, Unaani, Naturopathy and Chinese medicine. Apart from that some complementary systems such as Acupuncture, Acupressure, Yoga, Tai-Chi and Reiki are also widely popular.

At present there is no sure-shot treatment for COVID19 in modern medicine. In undeveloped and developing countries most of the rural population don't have access to hospitals and doctors. During such times, instead of finding which medicine system is better, we should treat people with whatever resources are available. As we already said our faith and belief in medicine also plays an important role, so it should be tried unless there are any severe side-effects.  

 Reference:

• https://www.theweek.in/news/india/2021/05/15/90-covid-patients-who-were-given-fake-remdesivir-survived.html
• https://journaljpri.com/index.php/JPRI/article/download/31351/58848