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Expert committee suggestions will be implemented says Health Minister Sudhakar. Bengaluru: Looking at the possibility of COVID third wave, Karnataka Health Minister K Sudhakar on Monday said that the state is getting prepared to address the pandemic and will implement suggestions made by the expert committee. “I have thanked them for the report and will discuss it with my technical committee members. We’ll try to implement their valuable suggestions if we have not taken those points in consideration. We want to prevent the third wave,” Karnataka Health Minister K Sudhakar said. Sudhakar added that the health practitioners and private nursing homes of Karnataka had formed a committee to combat the possible third COVID wave. He also added that they’ve officially presented a report to him and he will go through it. Basavaraj Bommai on vaccination: Earlier, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai had talked about the COVID third wave preparation and said the state will start at least five lakh COVID-19 vaccinations everyday from September one with the help of the Centre. “We did five lakh inoculations on a trial basis on Wednesday. Now we will start five lakh vaccinations daily from September 1,” Bommai said. To a question on COVID restrictions during the Gauri-Ganesha festival next month, he said such issues will be discussed at a meeting of COVID-19 experts on August 30. Source: The news has been published from India.com with a few edits by ArdorComm News Network.

Two months ago the medical device maker Philips had announced the recall of PhillipsContinuous positive airway pressure (CPAP), Bi-level positive airway pressure (Bi-Level PAP),and the mechanical ventilator devices. The state government of Tamil Nadu has asked thecompany to now either replace or rectify the problem that occurred in over 600 invasiveand non-invasiveventilators, which were being used in the Government Hospitals.Along with that, the] firm has also issued safety alerts to address the potential health riskthat include carcinogenic and toxic effects to have occurred while usage of these devices.The safety alerts were issued in June this year, which later initiated a recall notification aswell. The devices found problematic were responsible for pushing air in patients’ lungs, whoare suffering from obstructive pulmonary disease or sleep disorder, in such cases breathingintermittently stops. As per the notification issued by the firm, it was said that the foamused in these particular devices to reduce sound and vibration was found defective. Source: Healthworld.com

It hasn’t been long since the country came out of the ghastly second wave of the Coronavirus infections. A huge chunk of our population got infected with the virus with many succumbing to death. While COVID-19 cases are still on the rise, new variants like the Alpha and Delta strains have emerged with fresh concerns. There is fear among the people that the spread of the new variants of COVID-19 will cause a third wave in the country. Many fear the extent of help vaccination could extend. According to many research and predictions, the start of the third wave has already begun. Recent findings suggested by VK Paul, Head of the COVID task force, NITI Aayog, have hinted that India may see upto 6L cases a day in the coming months, and may possibly, be worrisome for the pediatric population. Similar mathematic models and research have hinted at a ghastly third wave if preparations aren’t put in place.  A number of epidemiologists and medical experts have hinted that the third wave could cause a rise in the number of daily COVID cases starting September and peak around the end of October or November.  Source: Times of India

It is being claimed that taking both the doses of Covid-19 vaccine can still be the best way of protection against delta virus variant. This test result was first identified in India and now inthe United Kingdom as well. Further studies show that the Oxford-AstraZeneca jabs, although less effective, but does offer the same level of protection as provided by Pfizer-BioNTech after four to five months, which was known in the largest study of its kind. But these vaccines are not as effective as they were against the Alpha variant, which caused most of the infection in the UK last winter. Although not much data is available for Moderna, researchersbelieve it is equally effective as the other vaccines.  The analysis for the effectiveness of these vaccines was done based on half-million test results from a total of 743,526 participants in the UK’s Covid-19 household infection survey led by Oxford University and the Office for National Statistics. As per the data received, the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine had 93% effectiveness against the Covid-19 infection symptoms, two weeks after taking the second dose, whereas Oxford-AstraZeneca’s vaccine has its effectiveness up to 71%. Source: BBC News

A panel was chosen from the whole-exome and transcriptome data of over 1500 cancer patients, for 28 different types of cancer.  As per the company, most patients as a part of data sampling were on stage III and IV of the disease. Along with that, all the options in the standard of care were exhausted.  As per the company, the TARGT indigene cancer panel is based on data generated from tumor tissues resulting in better success rates using precision medicine in the treatment of cancer.  Dr. Hitesh Goswami, CEO 4basecare, said, “Our vision is to leverage technology to develop affordable solutions, to customize the patient care in oncology. With TarGTIndiegene, we wish to help out with precise ways to personalize the treatments for Indian Cancer Patients. The data collected from the research have helped build the largest source of mutational signature identified in a cancer patient in India”.  Source: Healthworl.com

As per the analysts and healthcare investors, it is being predicted that drug-makers Pfizer Inc, Moderna Inc, BioNTech will reap billions of dollars from the Covid-19 booster shots, in the annual sales of flu vaccine markets that could rival $6 billion in a year. For many months these drug-maker companies have been saying, that people who are vaccinated will need an extra dose of vaccine to keep the protection from new variants of the Corona Virus. A list of countries like Chile, Germany, and Israel has already decided to give a booster dose to their older citizens and people with a weak immune system especially, when a fast spread of delta variant has become a sign of concern. The United Kingdom and the United States are also preparing to follow the same pattern.  Keeping this in mind Pfizer with its German partner BioNTech, and Moderna have already locked up over $60 billion in sales of vaccine shots for the years 2021 and 2022. This agreement consist supply of the first two doses of vaccine and well as billions of dollars in potential boosters for the wealthy nations. Source: healthworld.com

The Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) has granted approval for trials that will mix two different Covid vaccines — Covishield by Serum Institute of India and Covaxin by Bharat Biotech. The study will be conducted by Christian Medical College, Vellore. The Subject Expert Committee (SEC) of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) had a week ago recommended granting a nod for the mix-and-match trial. Combination of the two different vaccines had not been allowed in the country so far as no such trials were conducted and no data was available regarding the safety and efficacy of such combinations. This will be the first-of-its-kind study in the country and will involve 300 participants. The approval for the study follows an ICMR study in Uttar Pradesh, where 18 people were given two different doses of the Covid-19 vaccine by mistake in May. They had received Covishield as their first dose and were administered Covaxin as the second dose after six weeks. According to the ICMR study, the vaccine combination was safe and there were no adverse reactions. Also, those who got a mixed dosage of the vaccines demonstrated better immunogenicity that those who had got the same vaccine doses. According to the health ministry, the monthly production of Covaxin was projected to go up to 58 million doses per month, while Covishield production was expected to reach 120 million doses a month from September. SII also has plans to make 300 million doses of the Sputnik vaccine. There are similar studies being conducted globally to assess the safety and efficacy of combining two different vaccines and to see if combination of vaccines worked better that two doses of the same vaccine. Russia Direct Investment Fund has initiated partnerships with other vaccine producers to conduct joint studies of a combination of the first component of Sputnik V with foreign vaccines. They have completed a study of combining the first shot of Sputnik V vaccine with the AstraZeneca-Oxford University vaccine and the interim analysis on immunogenicity demonstrated high safety. There are studies of single dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine combined with the mRNA vaccines from Pfizer or Moderna as second doses and this was found to be effective. Source: FE Bureau