Khalid Simply Says

South Korea is often cited as an international example in controlling the spread of coronavirus. In the recent issue of the Journal of American Medical Association (Vol: 323, No: 21, page 2129, June 2, 2020),  the authors explained how South Korea managed to trace, track, contain the coronavirus epidemic. The methodology and outcome were so much different than how it was handled in the United States, that I thought of sharing this medical journal article   with you. The authors state that the first case of COVID-19 was detected in South Korea on January 20, 2020. As of April 20th, there were 10,683 confirmed cases, 2,233 people were quarantined or hospitalized, and 237 deaths.   According to the press accounts, the first USA confirmed case in the USA was on January 20th.The confirmed cases, and deaths as of April 20th were 749,203 and 35,793, respectively. On the per capita basis, South Korea had 2 deaths per 10 million population, vs. U.S. A’s 50 deaths per ...

As the acute phase of the novel coronavirus pandemics starts to ebb, the discussion is moving towards vaccines and how can we protect the populace from another wave in the fall or the next spring It seems clear that to fight off the virus, and prevent another public health crisis, most if not all of us must have immunity (herd immunity).We will develop the immunity either by having been infected and recovered, or by having received a vaccine.   This reality is the force behind the rush to develop a vaccine sooner than later. Whereas you, I and our elected officials would like to have an effective vaccine available for everyone who wants it, tomorrow, it just cannot happen that fast. For an effective, safe, commercially available vaccine in hundreds of millions of doses (or billions of doses for the whole world), there are many known and un-foreseen challenges. I have discussed the basics about vaccines in a previous blog and will skip them here. One of the challe...

Scores of animal studies followed by human clinical trials have proven that intermittent fasting not only helps lose weight, it also modifies and improves our glucose regulation, increases stress resistance, and suppresses inflammation and prolongs life. Muslims all over the world are close to the end of Ramadan, the month of fasting. From the religious perspective, Muslims are commanded to fast just as believers in the past were ordained to do. The following two verses from The Quran are illustrative: Oh, you who believe! Fasting is prescribed to you as it was prescribed to those before you, that you may learn piety and God consciousness” [Quran,2:183] “The month of Ramadan [is that] in which was revealed The Quran, a guidance for the people and clear proofs of guidance and criterion. So whoever sights [the new moon of] the month, let him fast; and whoever is ill or on a journey – then an equal number of other days. Allah intends for you ease and does not intend for yo...

As COVID-19 illness spreads, the authorities are pressing all buttons to stop the spread, treat those who are infected, save lives and develop strategies to prevent future spread of the virus. All of these steps are essential in fighting the pandemic. On the treatment front, we at least have one anti-viral drug that has been given the green light by the FDA. Over the next coming weeks and months, the drug remdesivir will be supplied to many hospitals treating severe cases of COVID-19. Another treatment is being tested is the convalescent plasma. Since thousands of people have recovered from the coronavirus infection, they can be the source of this plasma. What is convalescent plasma? Our blood has cells that float in a liquid medium called plasma. It has everything in it like water, proteins, sugar, nutrients, enzymes, and hormones to name a few. These materials are transported from one place in the body to the destination organs by the powerful pump, the heart. Ou...

Checking our temperature has become an essential ritual in this era of COVID-19 pandemic. No one used to care if I had fever, but now fever rules the world. Now everyone wants to know if I have fever. If I do, not only will I be denied entry to a school, office, restaurant, airplane, or a train, but I will most likely be quarantined. So, when the Wall Street Journal published an article on the subject, it gave me the idea to write about fever and thermometers. Heat in the body is produced by metabolic activity, mostly in the muscles and the liver. It is the responsibility of the temperature regulatory center, which is in the brain (the hypothalamus) to maintain a steady temperature. Excessive heat is removed through the skin and our breath. The normal core body temperature is generally defined as 98.6 ºF (37ºC). The body temperature does fluctuate between men and women, time of the day, environmental exposure, clothing, and many other factors. Fever, an elevation in core body...

Most of us watched the news of Dr. Anthony Fauci on April 29, 2020 announcing positive results of the clinical trial of the antiviral drug remdesivir. This positive news was like a ray of bright sunshine suddenly peeking through the dark clouds that had hung over the nation for last two months. It looks like that we have a winner. As good a news as this is, it is still preliminary and not the magic bullet that we are hoping for. So, I spent hours this morning digging through the sources and here is the story behind the story. The Story: The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID, a division of the NIH, USA) sponsored clinical trial shows remdesivir accelerates recovery from advanced COVID-19. The NIH News Release April 29. 2020.   Story behind the story: The NIAID had launched a multicenter clinical trial of the drug remdesivir in February 2020 in 100 testing sites globally. The drug, given intravenously, was to be tested in hospitalized...

As of today, USA has over 1 million positive cases, that is 1/3 rd of the total 3 million cases reported worldwide. The rise in the number of cases has also brought about a surge in COVID-19 related medical literature. The shared experience of the worldwide medical community has started to be published in the medical journals. What we are learning is that whereas respiratory system takes the brunt of the viral attack, the other organs of the body are not immune. Before reviewing the impact of COVID-19 on other organs of the body, one must recognize that the data being published has been put together in a haste. Most of the published articles include the clinical information that we know so far. This includes data on presenting symptoms, what organs were affected, the laboratory test abnormalities, and the x-rays and CT scans findings.   Since China is ahead of others, most case reports are coming from there. Many are anecdotal and small case studies. These are often from sin...