Bangladesh, US have similar Covid case management

Bangladesh and the United States have almost a similar management of Covid-19 patients.

The only difference in treatment is – in the US, monoclonal antibodies are administered to the patients at high risk of progression to severe conditions, while the drug's use in Bangladesh is minimum because of its high price, physicians said at a webinar between the University of Michigan and the Dhaka Medical College Hospital on "Non-ICU based Covid-19 Case Management".

Directorate General of Health Services of the Government of Bangladesh, with support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), launched the first of a two-part webinar series on Tuesday among medical universities in Bangladesh and the US to share best practices in COVID-19 case management.

Dr Christopher A Smith, MD, clinical assistant professor at Department of Internal Medicine-Hospital Medicine of University of Michigan, in a presentation said their hospital uses remidesivir, dexamethasone, tocilizumab, baricitinib drugs to treat severe Covid patients. The use of monoclonal antibodies has good results.

He also asked Bangladeshi doctors about the use of plasma therapy in Bangladesh.

In reply, Dr Motlebur Rahman, associate professor at the Department of Medicine of Dhaka Medical College Hospital, said plasma therapy is not given on a routine basis in Dhaka Medical College Hospital. Further data analysis is needed to confirm whether plasma therapy is effective in Covid-19 treatment.

Such therapy is given if a patient's condition worsens rapidly, he added.

The hospital readmission rate of patients with post-Covid complications in the US is 50%. In Bangladesh too, patients suffer from post-Covid complications.

So, there should be data of such patients in Bangladesh as well, the physicians think.

US Ambassador to Bangladesh Earl R Miller, in his speech, said the US has been at Bangladesh's side from the beginning of the Covid-19 Pandemic. They helped Bangladesh with 100 ventilators.

The second webinar on ICU-based Covid management and treatment will be held at the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, where the two countries' doctors will discuss their best practices in Covid case management too.