New Delhi: The Ministry of Health & Family Welfare's Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) issued a revised guideline for Covid management. In the guidelines, published last week, the DGHS dropped all medicines, except antipyretic and antitussive, for asymptomatic and mild cases.
The guidelines come at a time when the country is seeing a dip in daily cases after a devastating second wave.
According to the new guidelines, all drugs including hydroxychloroquine, ivermectin, doxycycline, zinc, multivitamins, etc prescribed by the doctors to asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic Covid-19 patients have been dropped retaining only antipyretic for fever and antitussive for cold symptoms.
The guidelines have also discouraged medical practitioners to prescribe unnecessary tests such as CT scans. "HRCT scan chest should not be done for the purpose of diagnosing/ screening Covid-19 infection. Diagnosis of Covid-19 should be done only by using approved laboratory tests as recommended by the ICMR."
It highlighted the importance of following Covid appropriate behavior for hand hygiene and mask-wearing while continuing that people who do see Covid symptoms must seek teleconsultations and consume a healthy balanced diet with proper hydration. For asymptomatic patients, the guidelines said that no medication is required except for those with comorbidities who need to continue taking their prescribed medicines.
It also advised, "patients and family to stay connected and engage in positive talks through phone, video-calls, etc."
For people with mild symptoms, the guidelines recommended self-monitoring for fever, breathlessness, oxygen saturation (SpO2), or worsening of any symptoms. It further, suggested that people may take antipyretic and anti-tussive for symptomatic relief, and inhalation of budesonide at a dose of 800 mcg twice a day for 5 days for a cough.
‘No other Covid-19 specific medication is required. The patient may have to be investigated further if symptoms persist or deteriorate,’ the guideline said.
The guidelines have strictly advised against the self-medication of steroids stating they are harmful in asymptomatic and mild cases of Covid-19