{"id":37780,"date":"2021-04-29T18:30:32","date_gmt":"2021-04-29T13:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kashmir.today\/?p=37780"},"modified":"2021-04-29T18:30:32","modified_gmt":"2021-04-29T13:00:32","slug":"tocilizumab-prevents-covid-deaths-dak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/?p=37780","title":{"rendered":"Tocilizumab Prevents Covid deaths: DAK"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><em>Srinagar, Apr 29:<\/em><\/strong><em> Doctors Association Kashmir (DAK) on Thursday said Tocilizumab drug prevents Covid-19 patients from dying.<\/em><br \/>\n<em>\u201cThe drug saves lives,\u201d said DAK President and influenza expert Dr Nisar ul Hassan.<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Quoting a study from United Kingdom, he said Tocilizumab reduces the risk of death when given to hospitalized patients with severe Covid-19 disease.<\/em><br \/>\n<em>\u201cThe study also showed that the drug shortens the hospital stay and reduces the need for a mechanical ventilator,\u201d he added.<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Dr Hassan said we have been able to save lives of many Covid-19 patients in Kashmir hospitals with early institution of the drug.<\/em><br \/>\n<em>\u201cBut, now the drug has run out of stock in valley hospitals putting lives of patients at risk,\u201d he said.<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Urging government to make the life-saving drug available for Covid-19 patients, Dr Hassan said we must ensure that every patient who needs the drug should be able to access it.<\/em><br \/>\n<em>\u201cOriginally developed to treat rheumatoid arthritis, the drug combats the disease by quelling cytokine storm which is the hyperimmune response of the infected person to the virus,\u201d he said.<\/em><br \/>\n<em>\u201cMortality in Covid-19 patients has been linked to the presence of the cytokine storm induced by the virus,\u201d Dr Nisar said adding that \u201cexcessive production of cytokines leads to respiratory failure and widespread tissue damage resulting in multiorgan failure and death.\u201d<\/em><br \/>\n<em>\u201cTocilizumab suppresses the hyperimmune response by blocking receptor for a key cytokine known as interleukin-6 (IL-6) and improves survival rates and reduces mortality among Covid patients,\u201d he said.<\/em><br \/>\n<em>The DAK President said it is vitally important to know that there is no single magic bullet to treat the novel coronavirus and several drugs in combination are needed to tackle the virus.<\/em><br \/>\n<em>\u201cWith the approval of several therapies, combination of them given at the right time gives a good result,\u201d he said.<\/em><br \/>\n<em>\u201cApart from oxygen, moderate to severe patients are given steroids, remdesivir, convalescent plasma and Tocilizumab in various combinations,\u201d he added.<\/em><br \/>\n<em>\u201cInitially it was believed that deaths were happening because of poor oxygenation. Now we know that intravascular clotting can also lead to lung dysfunction and death. So heparin is given in Covid patients to prevent clotting,\u201d said Dr Nisar.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Srinagar, Apr 29: Doctors Association Kashmir (DAK) on Thursday said Tocilizumab drug prevents Covid-19 patients from dying. \u201cThe drug saves lives,\u201d said DAK President and influenza expert Dr Nisar ul Hassan. Quoting a study from United Kingdom, he said Tocilizumab reduces the risk of death when given to hospitalized patients with severe Covid-19 disease. \u201cThe [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29966,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-union-territory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=37780"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37780\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=37780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=37780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=37780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}