Category: Amazing Feats

** Kundapur: Black fungus treatment – Coastal Kannadiga’s research saving invaluable lives

Deadly black fungus, which has emerged as a new ailment during the Covid19 second wave, has been hounding and harassing those who become infected by this disease. One of the most effective medicines to treat this disease happens to be liposomal amphotericin B.

A Kannadiga from coastal Karnataka, Bhandya Srikanth Pai, had led a team of researchers of Bharat Serums and Vaccines Ltd that put in laborious work to find this medicine.

Srikanth is from Gangolli near here. He completed his high school and PU education at Gangolli and Kundapur before getting his BPharma course at Bengaluru in 1975 and securing MPharma degree from Manipal in 1977.

He then joined Bharat Serums and Vaccines Ltd in Mumbai

** Oxygen on wheels

It’s been over a month since Yatish Babu last went home.

He’s been working with his friends to supply oxygen cylinders to Covid patients all over the city.

Early in April, at the insistence of his loved ones, he procured two cylinders. But soon, it was evident that the virus was making it difficult for people to breathe and oxygen supplies were stretched. By the last week of April, he and his friends began to procure cylinders and supply them to patients at their homes free of charge.

Babu, who works as a private consultant, and his friends Vijay S, Praveen Gowda, Krishna Sagar, and Basavaraju have been living in a hotel for the past month or so as to avoid putting their families at risk. “I have not been able to talk to them these days. I have dedicated myself to working on the ground,” says Babu

** 40 U.K. docs of Mysuru origin join telemedicine initiative

More than 40 doctors of Mysuru origin settled in the United Kingdom have joined the telemedicine initiative launched by the Mysuru district administration for the treatment of COVID-19 patients in home isolation.

** IISc start-up gets regulatory approvals for new COVID-19 test

A COVID-19 test developed by PathShodh Healthcare, a start-up incubated at the Society for Innovation and Development (SID), Indian Institute of Science (IISc),has received the license to manufacture the test for sale from the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO).

The test is touted to be the first-of-its-kind, semi-quantitative electrochemical ELISA test for COVID-19 IgM and IgG antibodies, received the licence after due diligence validation at the Translational Health Science and Technology Institute (THSTI), Faridabad, as per the requirements of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), an IISc release said.

** Volunteers from around the world rally to help tackle COVID-19 in Karnataka

Doctors living across the world — all alumni of the Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute (BMCRI) from the 1992 batch — have now banded together with a coalition of volunteer groups to offer end-to-end COVID-19 management for patients in Karnataka, particularly in Bengaluru.

While the Karnataka COVID-19 Volunteers Team (KCVT), with over 500 members, has set up a helpline (080-47166115) which counsels patients, refers them to doctors for tele-consultation, helps in home management and to find hospital beds, Mercy Mission is operating two COVID-19 care centres and has a tie-up with the HBS Hospital in Shivajinagar for critical care. While the helpline and tele-consultation with doctors is available for patients across the State, other on ground facilities are in the city.

** IISc. vaccine, DRDO drug and OxyCare system are game changers: Sudhakar

Health and Medical Education Minister K. Sudhakar reviewed ongoing efforts at Indian Institute of Science (IISc.), which is developing a vaccine for COVID-19, and Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) that has developed a drug that prevents viral growth and a better oxygen management system. He hailed them as “game changers in the fight against COVID-19”.

Dr. Sudhakar visited DRDO facilities in the city on Friday where scientists appraised him of progress on 2-deoxy-D-glucose (2-DG) drug they are developing in collaboration with Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories (DRL), Hyderabad. “Clinical trial results have shown that this molecule helps in faster recovery of hospitalised patients and reduces supplemental oxygen dependence,” DRDO scientists said.

He was also apprised of the OxyCare system, an intelligent oxygen management system that reduces exposure of healthcare providers by eliminating manual adjustments to oxygen flow. The PM-CARES Fund will procure 1.5 lakh units of Oxycare System at a cost of ₹322.5 crore. It will be deployed across the country, DRDO scientists said.

** Mysuru-based firm develops drugs to fight Covid

At a time when the Covid second wave is raging, a Mysuru-based company has developed a new set of drugs to combat the Coronavirus, and the advantage is that these drugs can be administered orally. DRM Innovations, has used artificial intelligence to develop the drug. A team of specialists, led by Dr Manjunath B H, MD of DRM,

Dr Basappa, Chairman, Laboratory of Chemical Biology, Department of Studies in Organic Chemistry, University of Mysore, and Prof Mahesh PA, Department of Respiratory Medicine, JSS Medical College and Hospital, has developed the drugs.

** Residents welfare group to offer free car ride, ambulance service in Bengaluru amid pandemic

Speaking to The New Indian Express, Abdul Aleem, president of ‘Changemakers of Kanakapura Road’ said, “With COVID cases rising, we want to help out the nearly 30,000 residents who are our members. We facilitated arrangement of an Innova car through Sathya Sai Tourist service. Our group will bear the diesel and driver charges.”