Goemkarponn Desk
PANAJI: The Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) under the Union Health Ministry has revised the COVID-19 management guidelines and decided against the usage of certain strong medicines for mild or asymptomatic cases of coronavirus.
According to the new guidelines issued on May 27, the health ministry has written to the doctors’ community to drop drugs like hydroxychloroquine, ivermectin, doxycycline, zinc, multivitamins etc from prescription.
The government has retained only antipyretic drugs for fever and antitussive for cold symptoms. The ministry has even discouraged medical practitioners from prescribing unnecessary tests related to COVID-19 infection such as CT scan.
“No other Covid-19 specific medication is required. The patient may have to be investigated further if symptoms persist or deteriorate,” the ministry stated.
About Remdesivir, the guidelines said, “Remdesivir is a reserved drug approved by DCG (I) under Emergency Use Authorization only based on limited scientific evidence globally. It is to be used only in select moderate/ severe hospitalised Covid-19 patients on supplemental oxygen within 10 days of onset of disease.”
“Physicians are advised to exercise extreme caution in using remdesivir as this is only an experimental drug with potential to harm.”
At a time when India is seeing a dip in its tally of new cases every day, the revised guidelines have also dropped drugs such as hydroxychloroquine, ivermectin, doxycycline, zinc and multivitamins, that were earlier prescribed by doctors to treat asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic Covid-19 patients.
In asymptomatic cases, the revised guidelines have said no medication is required. In the case of mildly symptomatic patients, self-monitoring for fever, breathlessness and oxygen saturation (SpO2) have been recommended.
The State Health department was relying heavily on the Ivermectin for treatment.
The State had even started prophylaxes treatment for youth, which was asked to be stopped by the High Court.