Khalid Simply Says

Let’s Flatten the Curve The Covid-19 illness caused by the novel coronavirus has introduced many words and phrases in the routine conversations. Flatten the Curve is one of them. The medical experts on TV networks are telling us that one of the essential components of the war against coronavirus is to "Flatten the Curve". The concept has been described many times in the media but for some who may have missed it, let me explain: If the case numbers of the Covid-19 illness are plotted on the graph paper, it will have a bell-shaped curve. There will be a beginning, a peak, and then it will bottom out.   If the virus affects a lot of people at the same time, the peak of the curve will be very slim and tall, and the base will be narrow. So, if one thousand people get sick over one week, it will yield a curve with small base and a tall peak. (see the diagram) If one were to look at a flat curve, it’s top will be rounded and will look like a rainbow arc. In ...

Of Ventilators, Inhalers and Nebulizers Anyone who suffers from asthma has heard of inhalers and nebulizers. The term ventilator is rather new for some of us. In the times of coronavirus, it is good to know the what these terms mean and how are they used in our health care system. Breathing, like the beating of the heart, are autonomous functions of the body. They go on, on their own and are vital to our survival. Unless we pay attention, we don’t even know that we are breathing. That however is not the case for people who have some form of lung or respiratory disease.  The air passages start at the nose and mouth. The air that we breath, passes through the air pipe called the trachea , then through the two branches called  bronch i, one going to the left and the other to the right lung. There are certain conditions such as allergies and infections that can cause the airways to narrow. The allergies cause them to constrict and the infection/inflammation cause...

Treating Corona Virus The Story of Antibiotics, Antibodies, Biologics and Vaccines. The medical establishment is racing to find a cure for the corona virus or to at least find ways to lessen its impact and to prevent another epidemic next year. During the extensive coverage of the corona virus pandemic, we are hearing much talk about Antibiotics, Biologics, and Vaccines. Let’s take a closer look at these modalities. Antibiotics are drugs that work against organisms such as bacteria, viruses and fungi and are referred to as antibacterial, antiviral or antifungal respectively. Antibacterial Antibiotics: A well-known example of an antibacterial antibiotics is penicillin. Antifungal Antibiotics: Many of us have used these for fungal infection of the feet such as the athlete’s foot. Antiviral Antibiotics: The patients with AIDS are treated with antiviral drugs that target the HIV (human immunodeficiency virus). The antiviral antibiotics often work by interfering wi...

Survival of Corona Virus in the Air and on the Surfaces Research done at the National Institute of Health, USA Published   in the New England Journal Of Medicine 17 March 2020 https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc2004973?query=RP The scientists at the NIH have researched the behavior of the Covid-19 related corona virus in the laboratory and compared it to the SARS related virus (another corona virus). The authors caution that the results should be interpreted with caution because of variables and the fact that the data is based on simulated laboratory environments. For the full article, please use the link to the medical journal provided above. What I learn from this laboratory study is that SARS and the Covid-19 related viruses were compared in the lab as to how long they hung on in the air or on various surfaces, they behaved similarly. The authors state that perhaps the difference between SARS and Covid-19 depends on the amount of virus particles coughed...

How to Navigate the Corona Virus Sharing useful information from the Wall Street Journal Edited and summarized by Khalid Rehman. MD How to Navigate Corona Virus was published in the Wall Street Journal on Friday March 13, 2020. I found the information accurate, clear and timely and have summarized it here. What is Corona Virus and where did it come from?: The scientific name of this new (novel) virus is SARS-CoV-2 and the illness it causes is called COVID-19. It belongs to the Corona Virus family. SARS and MERS viruses are the other notable members of this family. It generally infects bats and small mammals. It is believed to have been transmitted to humans from a small mammal in the city of Wuhan in China. It is highly infectious and is transmitted through particles spread during coughing and sneezing. How do you know if you have it? The virus can cause mild flu like symptoms as well as lower respiratory infection like pneumonia. The early symptoms are sore thr...

Do I have common cold or Corona Virus? All of us have had viral infections sometimes in our lives. Common cold, the stomach virus and Influenza virus are some of the more common ones. The current worldwide epidemic named COVID-19 is a respiratory tract illness that is caused by a virus that belongs to the corona virus family. The official name of the virus is SARS-CoV-2. The other well-known viruses in the corona virus family are SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) and MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome) viruses. The common way to diagnose infections is to culture the germs, e.g. for suspected strep throat, the doctor takes a swab from the throat and sends it to the lab for culture. The lab grows the bugs in the petri dish and report back to the doctor’s office in day or two. Unfortunately, viruses cannot be grown in the petri dish. So how do we diagnose viral infections?   There are essentially two methods: One is to determine if the patient has the in...

Genes are Here   “ W hich Gene  is here ? I only know one Jean , ”   he   said .       “N o not that Jean and not the jeans that you wear. I mean the genes that make up  your  DNA. ”   They are here ,  I said.   In the field of medicine, the 21 st  century is going to be gene therapy century. Genomics like other “omics”, is a field that deals with individual genes or the whole genome. Gene therapies are medical treatments that are based on abnormalities in the genes. These genetic defects can be inherited such as sickle cell disease or acquired such as cancer.    Today, we are at the cusp of making many of such  diseases, a  thing of the past.   Until the turn of the century, most of the medicines were made by chemists by mixing chemicals. Such a toxic brew of chemicals was first tested on live cells in a petri dish, then on little mice, followed by bigg...