Shillong, May 04: The Khasi Students’ Union (KSU) today sent memorandum to the Chief Minister Mr Cornad K Sangma urging him to take measure to prevent the second wave outbreak of Covid-19 in the state.
In the memorandum sent to the Chief Minister the KSU request the Chief Minister to look into this matter as we are at a green stage of preventing the new cases of Covid- 19 and the cautious suggestive measures by the Union is to prevent second wave of the outbreak of Covid-19 in the state.
The KSU has suggested that health check at entry points. The KSU brought to the attention of the Chief Minister regarding the propose usage of Rapid diagnostic test for Covid-19 at entry points. This is used only to assess the true prevalence of disease for epidemiological purpose and not as a first line screening test.
The KSU said that, it requires the production of antibodies (IgM,IgG) specific for SARS COV-2. IgM signifies acute infection whereas IgG means that the patient was having chronic or past infection.
The IgM usually starts appearing in the blood only 7-10 days after the patient is infected, so by using the above test you are most likely to miss out on the cases with early infection or asymptomatic infected cases.
The Antibody production by the body also depends on the persons age, nutrition and immune system activity. So in a person with poor innate immunity the production of antibodies will be poor and you will miss out on those cases if you use rapid diagnostic test.
The ICMR already recalled rapid diagnostic test kits due to poor accuracy, why the state government of Meghalaya continued using these kits is questionable.
The KSU suggested that for Health check at entry points, no Rapid diagnostic test as a screening test.Consider using RT-PCR of nasopharyngeal swab for all returnees especially those coming from red zones if they shows any symptoms of Covid-19.
The Government need to Sensitise health care workers regarding various symptoms of Covid-19 like fever, dry cough, sore throat, breathing difficulty, severe headache, loss of sense of taste and smell, generalised body ache and diarrhoea.
The KSU mention that all returnees have to strictly follow quarantine protocol at home preferably staying in separate room with minimal contact to other family members.
The Government should increase the quarantine duration to 28 days from the current 14 days as the standard quarantine duration is double the maximum incubation period Covid -19 incubation period is 14 days.
This is the time for everyone to be extra-vigilant so as not to allow complacency on any level of administration.To ensure that the Dorbar Shnong should not discriminate any of the returnees undergoing quarantine, the memorandum was sign by Dr Deigo Mario P Thubru MD Medicine AIIMS,New Delhi.
