Odisha begins Fevipiravir therapy for Covid-19 patients in home isolation

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government today decided to start Fevipiravir therapy for Covid-19 patients in home isolation. This was decided during a high level meeting chaired by Chief Secretary Asit Tripathy over digital mode from Lokseva Bhawan.

The Chief Secretary directed the Health and Family Welfare department to widely circulate the SOP on use of oral Fevipiravir among doctors. Also, the department was asked to train members of rapid response teams (RRTs) properly for assessing suitability of a patient in home isolation for the therapy.

“Covid-19 is an evolving crisis. The new clinical input and empirical evidence about the pandemic has proved the effectiveness of Fevipiravir treatment as an antiviral therapy. It will save the patients in home isolation from getting serious. Many doctors and virus experts have posited that the medicine will be helpful in Covid management to a large extent,” said Tripathy.

However, he warned that the medicine needs to be administered with proper advice and precaution. He directed a team of experienced doctors to advise the patients in home isolation over audio visual media about this therapy.

Additional Chief Secretary Health & Family Welfare PK Mohapatra, who attended the meeting, outlined the technical and administrative contours of the therapy.

The therapy would be started only after well informed consent of the patient. The RRTs would deliver medicine, detail information sheet, ‘Dos and Don’ts’ along with ‘how and whom to report reactions/progress about patient’s condition’ at door step of the patients in home isolation, Mohapatra said.

In case of any major adverse reactions, the RRTs would coordinate shifting of the patient to appropriate Covid care facility.

As of now near about 80% of the positive patients are preferring home isolation.

Among others, Secretary Information & Public Relations Sanjay Kumar Singh, Secretary IT Manoj Kumar Mishra, Dr Sampad Das, Dr Jayanta Panda, Dr CBK Mohanty along with senior officers, doctors and public health experts participated in the discussions.