Public Health: Tips and information on how to prepare for the epidemic, avoid illness and protect our communities.

rollitup said:

I hope you are well, too Amber. I have great respect for people like you who are still working around sick people.

Click to expand...

Thanks ! its very challenging and i really have to be mindful and change my work routine and be creative about how i can make my PPE equipment last and how to minimize the time i spend around patients. How to take of myself because no one at my job gives a fuck about me.
But...
its been therapeutic weekend for me by spending a lot of time drawing this Covid 19 Virus . Thankfully drawing can keep my mind off of being trapped inside .
I think im ready for another work week!
stay safe
Take Care everyone .

Real information from scientists and doctors
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Coronavirus (COVID-19) Update: Chloroquine / Hydroxychloroquine and Azithromycin

Chloroquine was shown in 2004 to be active in vitro against SARS coronavirus but is of unproven efficacy and safety in patients infected with SARS-CoV-2. The drug’s potential benefits and risks for COVID-19 patients, without and with azithromycin, is discussed by Dr. David Juurlink, head of the Division of Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto.

Meet The Press Broadcast (Full) - March 29th , 2020 | Meet The Press | NBC News
On a special edition of Meet the Press, White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx said it is important to react quickly because no state or metro area will be spared from this virus. Gov. John Bel Edwards (D-La.) and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D-Mich.) discuss the difficulties their states face as cases rise exponentially. Former VP Joe Biden explains how he would handle this crisis if he were president. Andrea Mitchell, Eugene Robinson, Hugh Hewitt and Carol Lee join the panel.

Dr.Amber Trichome said:

Thanks ! its very challenging and i really have to be mindful and change my work routine and be creative about how i can make my PPE equipment last and how to minimize the time i spend around patients. How to take of myself because no one at my job gives a fuck about me.
But...
its been therapeutic weekend for me by spending a lot of time drawing this Covid 19 Virus . Thankfully drawing can keep my mind off of being trapped inside .
I think im ready for another work week!
stay safe
Take Care everyone .
View attachment 4517672

Click to expand...

You are a health worker? I will send you a pair of culottes. There has not been a single confirmed case among culotte wearers.

Chloroquine and Hydroxychloroquine for Coronavirus (COVID-19)?

Chloroquine and Hydroxychloroquine for Coronavirus (COVID-19)?

When it comes to COVID-19, President Trump has called chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine “game changers,” while Dr. Fauci at the same time has said “there is no magic drug.”

The reason why there is potential promise in these drugs is that because in labs, meaning in a test tube, they’ve been shown to be effective against the old SARS virus, and possibly against the new SARS virus, meaning SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19. And for this reason, there is now a high demand for these drugs.

And as a result of this high demand, some people who take these drugs for other medical conditions, like lupus or rheumatoid arthritis, are having a hard time getting new prescriptions.

So in this video, I’m going to dissect these drugs in further detail, and then explain their potential for preventing and/or treating COVID-19.

What is Chloroquine and Hydroxychloroquine?

Chloroquine, which is available in 250 mg and 500 mg tablets, is an old drug that has been used to prevent and treat malaria.

HCQ, which is structurally very similar to chloroquine, is used to treat rheumatologic conditions such as lupus and rheumatoid arthritis, and is available in 200 mg tablets.

For patients who require HCQ for the chronic treatment of rheumatologic disease, the maximum recommended daily dose is 5 mg/kg/day of actual body weight. So for example, if someone weighs 80 kg, that would be 400 mg per day.

Both Chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine affect the innate immune system, and alter inflammation, although exactly how they do so remains unknown.

What are the side effects of Chloroquine and Hydroxychloroquine?

Overall, these drugs are considered very safe, as serious side effects are extremely rare.


An itchy, maculopapular skin rash (reaction) occurs in about 10% of patients treated with chloroquine or HCQ.

One known side effect of these medications with long term use is eye damage, specifically damage to the retina of the eye.

That is why we always monitor patients with routine eye exams whenever starting these medications for long term use. With that said, Serious eye damage is relatively rare.

Chloroquine can prolong the QTc interval on the EKG, and when there is prolonged QTc interval, there is a relatively higher risk of having a fatal arrhythmia, but overall, the risk of having a fatal arrhythmia from chloroquine by itself is very low.

However, the risk is increased if someone is taking other medications that prolong the QTc interval.

And HCQ does not prolong the QTc interval, so it by itself does not cause fatal arrhythmias.

Can Chloroquine and Hydroxychloroquine be Used For COVID-19?

Hydroxychloroquine is being studied to determine if it can be used to prevent and/or treat COVID-19.

Trump claims that because the drug has been in use for years, it potentially poses fewer risks than a newly developed drug. And I can tell you that overall, they are both generally safe drugs, with HCQ being considered the safer of the two.

But we don’t know if it's necessarily safe for patients with COVID-19 patients, because it has been studied in a clinical trial. Besides answering the question, is it safe in patients with COVID-19, we have to know if it's effective in patients with COVID-19.

Why are these drugs thought to help fight COVID-19?

There was a study in China that was published in the Journal of Bioscience Trends this month, which demonstrated that chloroquine seems to improve COVID-19-associated pneumonia, and it appeared to be safe in these patients as well.

Chloroquine appears to have broad-spectrum antiviral properties, and this is why it is considered a Covid-19 treatment in China. But this was a small study and while it looks like there might be some promise, it's far from certain that it is effective against COVID-19.

Regarding hydroxychloroquine in combination with the antibiotic azithromycin, there was a single "small study" that showed that the combination of these two medications seemed to help against Covid-19.

Even if this combination does work, extra precaution has to be taken because when these meds are given together, they can alter the heart's electrical activity. Specifically, they can prolong the QT interval, which can lead to a fatal arrhythmia.

Unclebaldrick said:

You are a health worker? I will send you a pair of culottes. There has not been a single confirmed case among culotte wearers.

Click to expand...

No Thanks. I’ll trade you my Covid-19 #2 for an unused N95 mask and some shrooms.

Dr.Amber Trichome said:

No Thanks. I’ll trade you my Covid-19 #2 for an unused N95 mask and some shrooms.

Click to expand...

Used to grow Psilocybe cubensis on grain culture in mason jars when I was young and stupid, fungi was a hobby of mine as a young geek. Sold a pound one time and bought a hot new 386 computer way back before the internet went public. You can buy the spores online, instructions are free too. Easier to grow and faster than pot, just need some mason jars and a pressure cooker plus a few other items.

Myself and a buddy took 5 grams each one sunny afternoon in the country, enough to manifest the full spectrum of effects!

I wouldn't do mushrooms these days for a million bucks! In fact the last 30 +years.

A species called Psilocybe semilanceata grows here and is quite potent, used to pick and sell them by the pound back in the seventies (research pays).

More desperation and innovation
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
New innovation could help solve ventilator shortage
When the coronavirus outbreak began, the NHS had access to 5,000 ventilators.

A new innovation from the University of Oxford may soon be able to boost that number, thanks to an innovative design for a cheaper 'off-the-shelf' version.

And this, science fans, is why EVERYONE should wear a mask in public. Lowering your inoculate dose will lower the impacts of the disease by reducing viral loading.

How a large viral load could make coronavirus infection worse
UK Daily Mail
UPDATED: 09:20 EDT, 30 March 2020

How the amount of the coronavirus you get infected with could decide whether you suffer mild or severe symptoms

A study on COVID-19 patients in China links high viral load to worse symptoms

Viral load is the amount of a virus inside someone's body during infection

People can try to minimise their initial viral load with strict social distancing

Fewer viruses at the beginning of illness could help the immune system react

As well as reducing the risk of coronavirus spreading social distancing could make people's symptoms milder if they do get the illness, scientists say.

It can do this by reducing a patient's viral load - the number of particles of the virus they are first infected with.

Having a high viral load gives an infection a 'jump start' and raises the risk of a patient's immune system becoming overloaded in its battle against COVID-19.

People can slash their chances of a massive initial infection by staying away from others who might be ill and by sticking strictly to the rules against close personal contact which millions of people around the world are now faced with.

Someone infected indirectly by touching a door handle could ultimately end up with milder symptoms than someone who inhales an infected person's cough, experts say.

And this is because it gives the immune system more time to get a handle on the infection before it gets overwhelmed and symptoms start to show.

'In general with respiratory viruses, the outcome of infection – whether you get severely ill or only get a mild cold – can sometimes be determined by how much virus actually got into your body and started the infection off,' says Professor Wendy Barclay, an infectious diseases expert at Imperial College London.

'It’s all about the size of the armies on each side of the battle, a very large virus army is difficult for our immune system's army to fight off.'

The way viruses make people ill is by multiplying rapidly once inside the body and building up in such large numbers that the body takes weeks to destroy them all.

This process is inevitable once someone has caught an infection, but it is possible for people to first become ill with only a small dose of a virus.

This can, in theory, make it easier for their body's immune system 'army' to cope and to fend off the early infection.

In fact, for coronavirus, it seems likely that a large majority of patients become ill under this circumstance and take an unusually long time to notice they're sick.

Because of this, people appear to be spreading COVID-19 more widely than they would if they had a more serious disease.

Dr Michael Skinner, also from Imperial College, said that if someone starts off with a massive amount of the virus it could overload their immune system.

The virus would get a 'jump start' in such circumstances, he suggested, because it would be able to build up faster before the body had time to respond.

More at link: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8166867/How-large-viral-load-make-coronavirus-infection-worse.html

Wow

Desperate times, desperate measures... PS Don't try this at home with a 2 liter pop bottle, DIY would become DYI...
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MIT Will Post Free Plans Online for an Emergency Ventilator That Can Be Built for $100
TOPICS:COVID-19MIT
By DAVID L. CHANDLER, MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY MARCH 28, 2020


The new device fits around an Ambu bag (blue), which hospitals already have on hand in abundance. Designed to be squeezed by hand, instead they are squeezed by mechanical paddles (center) driven by a small motor. This directs air through a tube which is placed in the patient’s airway. Credit: Courtesy of the researchers

Clinical and design considerations will be published online; goal is to support rapid scale-up of device production to alleviate hospital shortages.
One of the most pressing shortages facing hospitals during the Covid-19 emergency is a lack of ventilators. These machines can keep patients breathing when they no longer can on their own, and they can cost around $30,000 each. Now, a rapidly assembled volunteer team of engineers, physicians, computer scientists, and others, centered at MIT, is working to implement a safe, inexpensive alternative for emergency use, which could be built quickly around the world.
The team, called MIT E-Vent (for emergency ventilator), was formed on March 12, 2020, in response to the rapid spread of the Covid-19 pandemic. Its members were brought together by the exhortations of doctors, friends, and a sudden flood of mail referencing a project done a decade ago in the MIT class 2.75 (Medical Device Design). Students working in consultation with local physicians designed a simple ventilator device that could be built with about $100 worth of parts. They published a paper detailing their design and testing, but the work ended at that point. Now, with a significant global need looming, a new team, linked to that course, has resumed the project at a highly accelerated pace.

This shows the setup used for preliminary testing of an earlier version of the low-cost prototype design that could provide rapid deployment to hospitals facing shortages of the vital equipment. Credit: Courtesy of the researchers
The key to the simple, inexpensive ventilator alternative is a hand-operated plastic pouch called a bag-valve resuscitator, or Ambu bag, which hospitals already have on hand in large quantities. These are designed to be operated by hand, by a medical professional or emergency technician, to provide breaths to a patient in situations like cardiac arrest, until an intervention such as a ventilator becomes available. A tube is inserted into the patient’s airway, as with a hospital ventilator, but then the pumping of air into the lungs is done by squeezing and releasing the flexible pouch. This is a task for skilled personnel, trained in how to evaluate the patient and adjust the timing and pressure of the pumping accordingly.
The innovation begun by the earlier MIT class, and now being rapidly refined and tested by the new team, was to devise a mechanical system to do the squeezing and releasing of the Ambu bag, since this is not something that a person could be expected to do for any extended period. But it is crucial for such a system to not damage the bag and to be controllable, so that the amount of air and pressures being delivered can be tailored to the particular patient. The device must be very reliable, since an unexpected failure of the device could be fatal, but as designed by the MIT team, the bag can be immediately operated manually.

Test setup in the lab shows the most recent version of the device undergoing initial testing. Credit: Courtesy of the researchers
The team is particularly concerned about the potential for well-meaning but inexperienced do-it-yourselfers to try to reproduce such a system without the necessary clinical knowledge or expertise with hardware that can operate for days; around 1 million cycles would be required to support a ventilated patient over a two-week period. Furthermore, it requires code that is fault-tolerant, since ventilators are precision devices that perform a life-critical function. To help curtail the spread of misinformation or poorly-thought-out advice, the team has added to their website verified information resources on the clinical use of ventilators and the requirements for training and monitoring in using such systems. All of this information is freely available at e-vent.mit.edu.
more...

Build a sauna, sit in it and cook your ass, and then run into a small room with the AC cranked! There's good science behind it!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Coronavirus Pandemic Update 46: Can Hot/Cold Therapy Boost Immunity? More on Hydroxychloroquine

Dr. Seheult discusses compelling research on thermal regulation (hot/cold hydrotherapy with a sauna or contrast shower for example) and the potential immune system benefits to ward off viral infections - as has been used in many regions including Finland. A follow up on possible treatment with hydroxychloroquine, and recent trends in US COVID-19 infections are also discussed.

Go to YouTube for links to the papers cited.

A preliminary study, much more needs to be done, caution is advised, but so is hope (see the video above and think about a sauna too)...


Clinical and microbiological effect of a combination of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin in 80 COVID-19 patients with at least a six-day follow up: an observational study Running title: Hydroxychloroquine-Azithromycin and COVID-19

Results
Demographics and patient status at admission (Tables 1 and 2) A total of 80 patients with confirmed COVID-19 were hospitalised at the Méditerranée Infection University Hospital Institute (N=77) and at a temporary COVID-19 unit (N=3) with dates of entry from 3–21 March 2020. All patients who received treatment with hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin (16) for at least three days and who were followed-up for at least six days were included in this analysis. The median age of patients was 52 years (ranging from 18 to 88 years) with a M/F sex ratio of 1.1. 57.5% of these patients had at least one chronic condition known to be a risk factor for the severe form of COVID-19 with hypertension, diabetes and chronic respiratory disease being the most frequent. The time between the onset of symptoms and hospitalisation was on average five days, with the longest time being 17 days. 53.8% of patients presented with LRTI symptoms and 41.2% with URTI symptoms. Only 15% of patients were febrile. Four patients were asymptomatic carriers. The majority of patients had a low NEWS score (92%) and 53.8% of patients had LDCT compatible with pneumonia. The mean PCR Ct value was 23.4.
more...

Your Phone Can Function As a Low-Cost Ventilator | Quint Fit

Indian Health Tech - World's Cheapest Ventilator: A low-cost, user-friendly portable ventilator has made it possible for patients on long-term ventilator support to go back home after years.

DIY-HP-LED said:

Your Phone Can Function As a Low-Cost Ventilator | Quint Fit

Indian Health Tech - World's Cheapest Ventilator: A low-cost, user-friendly portable ventilator has made it possible for patients on long-term ventilator support to go back home after years.

Click to expand...

This kind of shit is why I have faith that no matter what humanity will be ok. It is just a shame that it takes epic disasters like this to spur massive changes.

hanimmal said:

This kind of shit is why I have faith that no matter what humanity will be ok. It is just a shame that it takes epic disasters like this to spur massive changes.

Click to expand...

I'm looking for hope and help wherever I can find it and where it is supported by reasonable evidence or even conjecture. Even if this Indian ventilator is not suited to the worse covid patients it will be useful to remove many others who are on the urgently needed ventilators and perhaps move some of them home or to a to a safer environment. This has the potential to free up tens of thousands of higher quality ventilators and they are selling them for a song too, a billionaire could do a lot of good here right now, capital is what these folks need and a big preorder could do it, also support from consumer electronics firms etc could ramp up production in a hurry. It would be good enough for many people and free up the better ventilators for the most needy.

Those people who are older might want to look a the the medcram video above and do some more research on hot/cold therapy to boost your innate immune system. A small walk in closet can be turned into a sauna and if you do it at night this time of the year you'll get the cold part for free in Canada! If you are in a warm climate a similar arrangement can be made with an AC cranked up to freeze yer ass off. You could even use a grow tent as a sauna!

We fight a novel viral infection like coronavirus with the innate immune system first and kids have a big one, as we age our innate immune system weakens and this might be a way to boost it, definitely worth a look. A sauna might make a good lock down project and even a cold room too, might even make a good thread too for us DIY types. No harm in a sauna and it's a good place to meditate too, though freezing yer ass off after might be a bit of a challenge. If you want to boost your immunity where it counts with this virus, the innate component check it out. I often wondered why those old finnish guys ran from the sauna and jumped into a hole in the goddamn ice! If ya don't have a stroke you'll be fine!

Caution: Yer dick will disappear along with your balls, but it is temporary....

COLD WATER & A SAUNA - FINLAND | VLOG 016