Suicides rise by 10pc across India during pandemic in 2020: report
A report released by India's National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) said suicides in the country showed an increase of 10 percent in 2020 amid the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Oct 10: This happens when bacteria change over time and become resistant to drugs that are supposed to defeat them and cure the infections they cause.
Such resistance directly caused 1.27 million deaths worldwide in 2019, according to The Lancet, a medical journal. Antibiotics - which are considered to be the first line of defence against severe infections - did not work on most of these cases.
India is one of the countries worst hit by what doctors call "antimicrobial resistance" - antibiotic-resistant neonatal infections alone are responsible for the deaths of nearly 60,000 newborns each year. A new government report paints a startling picture of how things are getting worse.
Tests carried out at Kasturba Hospital to find out which antibiotic would be be most effective in tackling five main bacterial pathogens have found that a number of key drugs were barely effective.
These pathogens include E.coli (Escherichia coli), commonly found in the intestines of humans and animals after consumption of contaminated food; Klebsiella pneumoniae, which can infect the lungs to cause pneumonia, and the blood, cuts in the skin and the lining of the brain to cause meningitis; and the deadly Staphylococcus aureus, a food-borne bacteria that can be transmitted through air droplets or aerosols.
Doctors found that some of the main antibiotics were less than 15% effective in treating infections caused by these pathogens. Most concerning was the emergence of the multidrug-resistant pathogen called Acinetobacter baumannii, which attacks the lungs of patients on life support in critical care units.
"As almost all our patients cannot afford the higher antibiotics, they run the real risk of dying when they develop ventilator-associated pneumonia in the ICU," Dr SP Kalantri, medical superintendent of the hospital, says.
A new report by Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) says that resistance to a powerful class of antibiotics called carbapenems - it defeats a number of pathogens - had risen by up to 10% in just one year alone. The report collects data on antibiotic resistance from up to 30 public and private hospitals every year.
"The reason why this is alarming is that it is a great drug to treat sepsis [a life-threatening condition] and sometimes used as a first line of treatment in hospitals for very sick patients in ICUs," says Dr Kamini Walia, a scientist at Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and lead author of the study.
Things are so worrying that only 43% of the pneumonia infections caused by one pathogen in India could be treated with first line of antibiotics in 2021, down from 65% in 2016, the ICMR report says.
Saswati Sinha, a critical care specialist in AMRI Hospital in the eastern city of Kolkata, says things are so bad that "six out of 10" patients in her ICU have drug-resistant infections. "The situation is truly alarming. We have come to a stage where you are not left with too many options to treat some of these patients."
Resistance to antibiotics, say doctors at Kasturba Hospital, is widespread even among outpatients from villages and small towns with conditions such as pneumonia and urinary tract infections. Since most don't carry prescriptions and can't recall the drugs they were prescribed, doctors find it difficult to get records of their past exposure to antibiotics.
Managing such patients is an ordeal. "The situation is desperate, and desperate measures - ordering more and more antibiotics is likely to result in more harm than benefits," says Dr Kalantri.
Public health experts believe many doctors in India prescribe antibiotics indiscriminately.
Antibiotics, for example, cannot cure viral illnesses like flu or common cold. Patients with dengue - a viral infection - and malaria - caused by a single-celled parasite - often receive antibiotics. Antibiotics continue to be prescribed for diarrheal diseases and upper respiratory infections for which they have limited value.
During the chaotic treatment of Covid-19, patients were treated with antibiotics which resulted in more adverse effects. Last year, a ICMR study of 17,534 Covid-19 patients in Indian hospitals found that more than half of them who acquired drug-resistant infections died.
Yet prescriptions for broad-spectrum antibiotics - drugs that should be reserved for tackling the most serious, hard-to-treat bacterial infections - comprise a whopping 75% of all prescriptions issued in India's hospitals, studies have found.
To be true, doctors are not to blame entirely. In large, crowded public hospitals, they are starved of time of see patients, diagnose their illnesses, sort bacterial from viral diseases and design treatment plans, says Dr Kalantri.
A widespread lack of knowledge about antibiotics means that most patients - rural and urban - are not aware of antibiotic resistance. Even the rich and educated take antibiotics if they fall ill or pressure doctors to prescribe antibiotics.
As prices of antibiotics fall and diagnostics remain expensive, doctors prefer to prescribe drugs rather than order tests. "Doctors are sometimes not sure what they are treating, and they want to treat everything by using broad-spectrum drugs," says Dr Walia.
Hospital infections are also to blame. Patients are often pumped with antibiotics to compensate for poor hygiene and sanitation, "because no doctor wants to lose a patient because of an infection".
"It is a perfect storm as far as India goes. There are lots of infectious diseases in the background, lack of infection control and a lot of unnecessary consumption of antibiotics," Ramanan Laxminarayan, director of the One Health Trust, a global public health think tank, says.
Experts believe India needs to invest more in and beef up diagnostic labs, produce more infectious diseases physicians, reduce hospital infections and train doctors on usage of antibiotics based on tests to tackle the rising threat of superbugs. Otherwise, "resistance to antibiotics has the potential of taking the form of a pandemic in near future," warns Dr Walia.
SEPT 27: The company makes most of its phones in China but has shifted some production outside the country as tensions rise between Washington and Beijing.
China's 'zero-Covid' policies, that have triggered widespread lockdowns, have also caused major disruptions for businesses during the pandemic.
The technology giant unveiled its latest iPhone earlier this month.
"The new iPhone 14 line-up introduces groundbreaking new technologies and important safety capabilities. We're excited to be manufacturing iPhone 14 in India," Apple said in a statement.
Taiwan-based Foxconn, which manufactures the majority of Apple's phones, has had an operation in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu since 2017, where it makes older versions of the handsets.
The announcement that iPhone production has increased in India is a win for prime minister Narendra Modi's administration.
His government launched its flagship "Make in India" campaign eight years ago as it aimed to boost the country's manufacturing and exports.
Apple's announcement marks its latest move towards diversifying supply chains to avoid disruptions as tensions rise between China and the US over Taiwan and trade.
Earlier this month, analysts at investment bank JP Morgan said that they expect Apple to move around 5% of iPhone production to India this year.
The report also predicted that a quarter of all iPhone production will be in the South Asian nation by 2025.
Last year, Apple supplier Foxconn invested $1.5bn (£1.4bn) in Vietnam, according to the South East Asian country's government.
Vietnamese state media reported last month that the company had signed a $300m agreement to expand its facility in the north of the country to increase production.
MAY 13: She cooks the day's meals in one go, as the family tries to make ends meet on her husband's monthly earnings of around 10,000 rupees ($129; £106).
The woman, who didn't want to be named, is among millions of Indians struggling to afford cooking gas cylinders - which use liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) - after a series of price hikes over the past year and a half. The most recent hike last week - of 50 rupees (0.65; £0.53) - led to the price of a 14.2 kilogram cylinder crossing 1,000 rupees in some parts of the country.
Cylinder prices have long been a hotly-debated political issue in India, with opposition parties - including the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party before it came to power in 2014 - routinely taking to the streets to protest against hikes.
But the issue has become even more sensitive after the Covid pandemic, which suppressed incomes, caused job losses and exhausted savings.
Food and fuel costs have also been soaring - last week, India's central bank announced its first interest rate hike in two years in an attempt to slow inflation.
But the pinch on people's pockets is expected to continue as companies pass on high borrowing costs to consumers.
Experts say any increase in the price of essential commodities such as cooking gas cylinders at a time of high inflation will force people to cut back on other priorities.
"Different households make different choices on where to cut spending, but we have seen that food and education are two common categories - for instance, people may decide to stop buying milk or paying for their children's coaching classes," says Himanshu, an economist and academic who only uses his first name.
Both choices, he points out, will have negative long-term consequences.
High cylinder prices may also be reversing the noticeable gains made by the ambitious Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana, which was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government in 2016.
The scheme aimed to move poor rural households away from high-polluting fuel sources such as wood, to cleaner energy by giving them subsidised LPG connections and cylinders - the government said in 2019 that it has provided more than 80 million connections under the programme.
A 2020 report by the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW), a policy think-tank, said that LPG's share in Indians' primary cooking fuels had increased from 28.5% in 2011 to 71% by March 2020 - much of the credit, it says, goes to the Ujjwala scheme.
But it also pointed out hurdles that prevented even people who had received LPG connections from using only that for cooking.
"The biggest reason given by households that owned an LPG connection but stacked it with other cooking fuels was the inability to afford the high recurring expense of refilling their cylinders," says Sunil Mani, a programme associate at CEEW and one of the authors of the study.
There are several other reasons that prevent people from transitioning to exclusive use of LPG - from lack of awareness to difficulties in procuring cylinders.
"But that is all secondary to the affordability barrier. That needs to be solved first," Mr Mani says.
According to research from CEEW, an average household in rural India set aside 4.9% of its monthly expenditure on procuring cooking fuel in March 2020.
By April 2022 - when the price of a cylinder was at 950 rupees - this had risen to 11% of the household monthly expense. Even this number, Mr Mani says, is likely to be an underestimate as it assumes that incomes have remained constant.
It's essential, he says, to give adequate, targeted subsidies to poorer households to ensure that the gains made by the scheme are not undone.
Himanshu also adds that the government has to provide relief through spending more on subsidies and other welfare measures.
"Unless the government absorbs the price shock, people will cut their spending, leading to a further decline in demand. It is a vicious cycle," he says.
There are major health hazards as well.
People in urban areas have fewer choices when it comes to LPG alternatives, and it's hard to cook over an open flame in small rooms without proper ventilation.
But people in rural areas are more likely to return to unclean options such as cow dung and firewood - which cause major health risks. According to the Global Burden of Disease study, household air pollution accounted for more than 600,000 deaths in India in 2019.
Mr Mani points out that the health risks have only increased due to Covid, which affects the respiratory system.
"Preparing alternatives to LPG is also a gendered activity - the burden usually falls on women."
With inputs from BBC
According to the World Bank’s latest report, Bangladesh (South Asian country) has a strong track record of development and prosperity. Over the last decade, it has been one of the world's fastest growing economies, owing to a demographic dividend, robust ready-made garment (RMG) exports, remittances, and stable macroeconomic conditions. Even after the COVID-19 pandemic, the country has experienced a rapid economic recovery.
Bangladesh tells the world a remarkable story of poverty reduction and development. From being one of the poorest nations at birth in 1971, Bangladesh reached lower-middle income status in 2015. It is on track to graduate from the UN’s Least Developed Countries (LDC) list in 2026. Poverty declined from 43.5 percent in 1991 to 14.3 percent in 2016, based on the international poverty line of $1.90 a day (using 2011 Purchasing Power Parity exchange rate). Moreover, human development outcomes improved along many dimensions.
On the other hand, the South Asian Island nation of Sri Lanka is currently going through an extreme economic crisis. Foreign exchange reserves have fallen so low that school examinations have been closed indefinitely due to a lack of imported paper. In addition to cooking gas, there has been a shortage of kerosene or petrol. Blackout has started due to a lack of electricity.
The situation is so dire that due to inflation, high unemployment, and shortages of almost all necessities, many Sri Lankans are fleeing their country in the hope of a better life abroad. Countless Sri Lankans are now being forced to do something other than their main occupation as not everyone can afford to leave the country. The suffering of the people of that country is coming up in the world media.
The country has never been in such a bad situation since independence in 1947. To cope with the situation, the Sri Lankan government has asked for a new loan of 1.5 billion US dollars from neighboring India. When Sri Lanka faced problems, Bangladesh provided 250 million in currency assistance for the first time. This was the first loan from Bangladesh for any country. They again asked for a loan from Bangladesh. Besides, they have been repaying loans of different countries through the exchange of goods.
Sri Lanka was quite capable of human resources and internal prosperity. Then why is there a crisis today? In this regard, economic analysts have brought forward various factors, from which different countries can learn lessons in their current and future plans.
Sri Lanka has undertaken several mega projects in their country for more than a century. These include seaports, airports, roads, and other projects that are currently considered unnecessary and redundant. Different governments of Sri Lanka have taken loans from different sources at home and abroad. As a result, their foreign exchange reserves gradually ran out. According to the country's economists, there has been little foreign direct investment in Sri Lanka in the last 15 years. Instead of foreign investment, various governments have focused on borrowing.
The country's government has issued sovereign bonds since 2007 to raise money. This type of sovereign bond is sold when the expenditure is more than the income of a country. Such bonds are sold in the international capital market to raise money. That is what Sri Lanka has done. But the country did not give much thought to how the money would be paid. At present, Sri Lanka has a debt of 12.5 billion for that bond alone. Besides, the government has also borrowed from domestic sources.
The once self-sufficient country is also in dire straits due to tax cuts, reduced income from tourism remittances, and unplanned decisions in agriculture. Different countries including Bangladesh have to learn from this situation. The world economic situation has begun to change rapidly since the Russia-Ukraine war, at which time any country could fall into a new crisis.
On the other hand, the economy of these 220 million countries (Pakistan) is in political and economic turmoil. Pakistan is in debt, amounting to 130 billion USD. At the same time, inflation seems to have picked up speed (12 percent). Over the past three years, Pakistan's progress has stalled.
The recent political instability has created a crisis in Pakistan. The recent political unrest has shaken the business and industrial sectors. The country's economy is already fragile due to the depreciation of the rupee, declining reserves, rising commodity prices, and revenue shortfalls.
Not only has the currency depreciated, but the wheel of Pakistan's economy has slowed down over the past three years. The recent political unrest has shaken the business and industrial sectors. The instability in Pakistan's politics is showing no signs of abating anytime soon. The Pakistani rupee is depreciating. The rupee depreciated against the dollar on Thursday, hitting a new record. 188 Pakistani rupees are available for one dollar. Never in the history of Pakistan has the rupee depreciated so much.
During the outgoing Prime Minister Imran Khan’s tenure, there has been an increase in the amount of debt, ranging from inflation, to a record fall in the value of the Pakistani currency, with the finance minister changing three times.
On the other hand, Bangladesh is currently a wonder of development. The implementation of big projects is now just a matter of time. City facilities have also been ensured in the villages. Visible flyovers on most of the roads in the capital. Metrorail will be launched in a few days. The long Padma bridge is not a dream now, it is real. Economists speculate that the GDP growth rate could rise to one percent for the bridge. This bridge has given new hope to the people of the south. The implementation of such a project with the government's own funding was at one time unimaginable. The country is moving forward with a sound plan.
The present government in Bangladesh has shown great prudence and foresight in the progress of Bangladesh. 100 economic zones are being formed. Investment is coming from different countries. Foreign exchange reserves are adequate (45 billion USD, January 2022), and remittances are satisfactory. It can be said that every economic foundation of Bangladesh is still in a strong position.
During the Sri Lankan corona, the tourism industry was almost destroyed by giving more importance to the health sector. Unnecessary development projects were carried out with loans, the organic agriculture sector has come to a standstill and the tax on public welfare has been greatly reduced but the economy of Bangladesh was active during the pandemic. Emphasis was laid on revenue collection and the agricultural sector of Bangladesh was strong.
Experts believe that Bangladesh is in a positive position in terms of foreign exchange reserves, remittances, and export earnings.
Bangladesh's foreign exchange reserves now stand at more than 45 billion, despite rising import costs. With which the country can pay imports of goods for six months. Sri Lanka, on the other hand, has less than two billion dollars. It is not possible to meet the cost of one week's import.
On the other hand, Bangladesh's growth rate was way above Pakistan, even before the pandemic in 2018-19, it was 7.8% compared to Pakistan's 5.8%. Various international organizations, including the World Bank, the World Economic Forum, and the Economic Intelligence Unit, have identified Bangladesh’s economic development as a “wonderful puzzle.” While the current economy of Bangladesh is 410 billion, the size of Pakistan’s economy is about 260 billion.
Bangladesh has improved its quality of life, economic strength, prosperity, education, and research in every field. Due to the global coronavirus pandemic, Bangladesh’s growth has slowed down. But where the growth of all the developed countries of the world was negative in these years, the achievement of Bangladesh was also noticeable.
Successful statesman Sheik Hasina has achieved full potential to move from a least developed country to a developing country. It has been possible because of people’s hard-work and strong leadership along with political stability, high flow of FDI, empowerment of women, unique poverty alleviation model, inclusivity of economy, etc.
‘Bangladesh’ tells a ‘miracle story’ while Sri Lanka and Pakistan share disaster tales.
A report released by India's National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) said suicides in the country showed an increase of 10 percent in 2020 amid the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
NEW DELHI, Sept. 1: With scars of the deadly second wave of COVID-19 still fresh in the minds of Indians, health experts have already warned about a third wave of the pandemic hitting the country in the upcoming months.
Indian Medical Association (IMA), the country's leading organization of doctors, warned in July that the third wave of the pandemic was inevitable and imminent, based on the global evidence available and the history of pandemics.
IMMINENT THIRD WAVE
The Indian government on Tuesday reported 30,941 new cases in the last 24 hours, dropping from around 40,000 in the previous days.
Authorities have almost opened up markets and relaxed the restrictions imposed to curb the spread of infection. Educational institutions have also been reopened in most states.
Despite the relaxed restrictions, a panel under the Ministry of Home Affairs has warned that the third wave of COVID-19 may hit India between September and October. The panel has recommended that the federal government should step up the inoculation drive significantly to tame the imminent surge in infections.
In its report to the Prime Minister's office, the panel has underscored a critical need of paediatric facilities, including doctors, staff, and equipment like ventilators and ambulances, adding that the available infrastructure was "nowhere close" to the requirement if the need arose.
"STAGE OF ENDEMICITY"
Soumya Swaminathan, chief scientist of the World Health Organization (WHO), recently told a news portal that COVID-19 in India may be entering "some kind of stage of endemicity where there is a low or moderate level of transmission going on."
"We are not seeing the kinds of exponential growth and peaks that we saw a few months ago," Swaminathan said.
The scientist added that while it is possible that a large number of children could get infected in the third wave, they are unlikely to fall seriously ill. She mentioned specifically that there is no need to be panic on this score although it is advisable to be prepared for more infections in children.
"We can take from the serosurvey and what we learnt from other countries that while it is possible that children could get infected and transmit, children luckily have very mild illness most of the time and there is a small percentage (of children) that get sick and get inflammatory complications," she said, adding that children's death rate will be "much much less" than the adults.
THE WAY OUT
A report by a group of experts with the National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM) said if the current vaccination rate of 7.6 percent does not go up, India can witness 600,000 cases per day in the third wave.
But if the government's proposal to increase this rate by five times to 10 million doses per day comes to fruition, India will see only 25 percent of the cases seen in the second wave during its third wave peak, it added, saying that vaccination is the only way out.
Last week India's federal health minister said that 50 percent of India's eligible population (currently above 18) had received their first jab of the vaccine.
The country's drug regulator has also approved Zydus Cadila's vaccine for children above 12, but the drive is yet to begin.
PREPARATIONS IN PLACE
Vinod Paul, member of the National Institution for Transforming India, recently said that in the upcoming surge of COVID-19, there will be a hospitalization rate of 23 percent.
Paul, who is also heading the COVID-19 task force of the federal government, warned that in September, India can witness a staggering 400,000 to 500,000 daily infections and has asked the federal government to prepare 200,000 ICU beds.
State governments are taking precautions ahead of the possible third wave to hit India during September and October.
In the hardest-hit state of Maharashtra, the local government has decided to appoint 1,200 doctors by Sept. 5, the state's Health Minister Rajesh Tope said.
Tope added that the state will increase production of oxygen to 2,000 metric tons per day from 1,200-1,300 metric tons, and will have granted primary health care centers 500 more ambulances by Sept. 30, adding to the existing 500.
In Gujarat, authorities have set up 15,000 pediatric oxygen beds.
"The need of the hour is to prepare for the third wave if and when it hits the nation," the NIDM report highlighted. "India's second wave of COVID-19 and the challenges posed have been alarming and need strong policy interventions at all levels with immediate, short, and medium- to long-term priorities, in order to be best prepared for the third wave."
MARTADI, June 27: Muktikot village of Swamikartik Khapar Rural Municipality-1 in Bajura has suffered food shortage. The prolonged drought and COVID-19 crisis led to the emergence of food crisis in the village.
Local Bal Bahadur BK said the village is home to around 400 Dalit families and they are struggling to meet their daily food requirements.
They are out of work due to COVID-19 crisis. “We have neither job nor food,” he said. India is the labour destination for a majority of youths in the village. But with the outbreak of second wave of the pandemic, they returned homes and are staying idle. The local production is sufficient to the requirement just for a month. They rely on market for almost throughout the year, according to locals.
Muktikot is gripped by the food crisis and malnutrition is the common health issue among children here, according to Swamikartik Rural Municipality information officer Kuber Shahi. Children, pregnant and aged people are the most affected. Malnutrition is one of the reasons for the child mortality rate in the village.
The village has not got any support from the federal and province governments yet. The Poor House Hold Identity Board’s-2072 report states that 75 percent households in Swamikartik fall below the poverty line. Out of 2,185 households, 1,038 are living with absolute poverty, the report shows.
KATHMANDU, May 21: The entire South Asia is currently battling with raging second COVID-19 wave. India, the largest country in the region and the second most populous country in the world, is counting the daily infections six digits. Here in Nepal, the total infections have so far reached around 120,000 since the outbreak of second wave.
According to the Ministry of Health and Population, the country recorded 488,654 positive cases of coronavirus and 366,946 have been recovered till Thursday.
The number of people succumbing to the virus is 5,847.
Health experts believe that the second wave’s virus variant is highly contagious than the one in the first wave. The government has implemented a prohibitory order for more than three weeks to break the chain of the virus transmission.
So far, three types of COVID-19 variants are detected in the country and the latest (third) variant B.1.617.2 is said to be highly aggressive. Amidst this, the government had brought one million doses of the Covishield vaccine and 800 doses of Vero Cell from India and China respectively. The vaccines were provided by the neighbours on grants.
Though the government has further signed an agreement with India to procure two millions doses of Covishield manufactured by the Serum Institute of India, it could get only one million doses and the arrival of remaining quantity is unlikely for the time being when India itself is suffering the devastating effect of the pandemic.
The government has appealed to international support and cooperation for help in its fight against the virus. It has called on chiefs and representatives of diplomatic missions here to facilitate for getting the vaccines. On Thursday, Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli urged the UK ambassador for help obtain the vaccine.
To date, only 2.13 million people have received the first shot of anti COVID-19 vaccines while 426,510 are totally vaccinated or got the booster dose.
The Serum Institute of India has said it is not able to supply vaccines to Nepal before the mid-January of next year. This is the Institute’s response to Bangladesh as well.
The government is preparing to bring vaccines from China and people have been asked to fill up the online form so that it could reach to the aspiring population easily after the arrival of the vaccines.
Infections and death rate are high in the country. Hospital beds are not easily available during emergency while hospitals are grappling with the short supply of oxygen gas and amidst this crisis, there lies a possibility for an alternative to curb the infection, claims Dr Samartha Singh.
He told RSS that nasal vaccine to control corona virus could be produced in the country if the government granted permit for the same.
Singh added, “Different vaccine manufacturers in the world have taken the study and research regarding nasal vaccine far ahead. Vaccine of some companies is in the process of trial. Nasal vaccine can be produced in the country within next six months if the government grants permit.”
Dr Singh opined that the countries like Nepal having low economic status could not purchase vaccine paying high price as fresh wave of corona virus is spreading and its new variants could still be seen for next few years. So it was necessary to manufacture nasal vaccine in low cost. The vaccine has the elements to destroy the virus at the occurring point as corona virus is transmitted from nose and mouth.
Drug Controller of India has given permission to Bharat Biotech to produce nasal vaccine. Similarly, Hong Kong University and Wantai Bio Pharmacy of Beijing have been working in the sector of nasal spray. These universities have been carrying out second-phase trial.
Likewise, Finland’s University of Helsinki and University of Finland have been doing pre-clinical trial. University of Virginia has also started pre-clinical trial. Israel and New Zealand have already granted permission to Sanotize, nasal spray, for domestic use.
Dr Samarth Singh said that nasal vaccine could be manufactured in the country and its patent right could be obtained.
Antigen of corona virus could be purchased and vaccine could be used through nasal spray, he shared. It has been found from research that this type of vaccine would work up to three to four weeks.
Also the Head of the Department of Neurology at Vayodha Hospital, Kathmandu, Dr Singh has already submitted his proposal at the National Health Research Council and the Ministry of Health and Population in this regard.
He said that they were hopeful the government would accept this proposal. “This is a big expectation and wish of Nepal like countries,” he added. According to him, the corona virus cannot enter the human body due to IGA Neutralized and this would be effective to children and elderly people as well.
Dr Singh shared that such vaccine production was practical to Nepal as it needs fixed temperature available in Nepal. He added that they could start vaccine production process if permission was granted to them for the purpose.
According to Indian media, the vaccine produced by Biotech Company of India is in a first phase trial and it is being used as trial for the people aged from 18 to 60 there.
It is being trialed in various hospitals in India. These hospitals are AIMS Patna, Apollo Hospital Chennai, St. Theresa Hospital Hyderabad.
The trial report would be received by November 30. According to experts, Nasal COVID Vaccines don’t require any kind of syringes. Dr Singh believes that such vaccines would be effective and affordable to the developing and under- developed countries.
Researchers Dr Munir of Lancaster University, Dr Samartha Singh and Dr Bill Peltry of Virginia University claim that such vaccines would be cheaper to other kinds of vaccines and effective to poorer countries. Dr Bill shared that though it was tough job of doing research of it, it was nearer to success.
Hong Kong University is also doing research in this area and it was being trialed on 7,000 patients. The Serum Institute of India is also carrying out trial of this kind of vaccine in India.
The Coronavirus enters the body especially through the nose, mouth and eyes. According to doctors, this virus remains in the mouth and throat for few days. The nasal vaccine kills the virus' colony in the nasal passage and in the mouth. So, the virus can't enter the lungs.
The Oxford University of UK is also involved in its research. The Government of China started the trial of this vaccine last November alone and has already mobilised 100 volunteers for this.
Most of the vaccines currently in use have employed the dead cells of the Coronavirus itself. This vaccine cannot be administered to people of every age group. Moreover, it has to be stored in a certain temperature.
But the nasal vaccine is free of these and similar demerits.
Even the World Health Organization (WHO) has granted permission for trial and eight various companies and universities around the world are conducting research on this. It is believed the results of these researches will be available soon.
In Dr Samartha Singh's opinion works can be immediately started in Nepal for development of the nasal vaccine by bringing this technology under trial in Europe provided that the country's regulatory agency gave the permission.
