Dr H Suresh is a veteran physician based in Bengaluru, practising for over five decades. He did his MBBS from the Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute, Bangalore in 1967 and is a member of Karnataka Medical Council.
Apart from maintaining social distance, wearing a mask when around people, hand care and sanitisation and observing strict covid appropriate behaviour, one must take the vaccine when their turn comes to keep themselves protected against the virus.
In patients who receive the vaccine, the chances of severe disease and mortality are visibly low.
In Dr Suresh’s opinion, covid will not be leaving us anytime soon since it is a virus that has been mutating as quickly as it has, it may take a little longer than other diseases to leave.
Having said that, it is natural for human beings to develop antibodies against an antigen, thus slowly but surely all of us will develop antibodies against the virus, and thus should probably take another year for the situation to get better.
- You should give yourself and your body a minimum time of 4 weeks after receiving the second dose of the vaccine to see if your body has started producing the antibodies.
- Some individuals produce the antibodies earlier while some others include, but are not exclusive to individuals who have other comorbidities.
- The administration of a third booster dose after 6 months of receiving the second dose for covid-19 is being taken into consideration. The booster dose will help provide you with long term immunity.
- Both the vaccines available- Covishield and Covaxin are equally effective, have similar efficacies and produce similar side effects, says Dr Suresh
- If you have a cough or fever, you can isolate yourself quickly, start on the medication while you get your RT-PCR test done. If after 2-3 days any of your symptoms do not improve or persist, you should get an HRCT Chest done.
You should start the treatment at the sight of a first symptom.
- Ivermectin has been discontinued in the treatment on covid.
- Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) is a drug used for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. This drug has also been discontinued in the treatment protocol of prophylaxis or treatment of covid.
- At the moment the treatment for covid includes antiviral, steroids, anticoagulants and other supportive measures.
- The fever, pain, generalised weakness after taking the vaccine is a part of the antigen-antibody reaction. In some cases the formation of the antibodies is slower than some others and this means that the reaction will also be slow and thus the side effects after receiving the vaccine will also be less or of the milder form.
- To be on the safer side, it is best that you either wait for a minimum of 24 hours or spray the package or surface with a sanitiser before using the product.
