DrugXpert Blog

Strain, specie and variant Before the Covid-19 pandemic, most people only talked about viruses in general. Very few people knew about terminologies used when talking about viruses. Only those who studied genetic engineering and related courses did. Read Also :  How coronavirus mutate into a new variant When the news of a new variant strain of the virus causing Covid-19 surfaced in the United Kingdom (UK) and South Africa, many news media used the term strain. Others use the term variant. This confusion can easily be cleared. What Is Strain, Specie and Variant To understand what these terms of a virus means, we will use coronavirus to explain it. Coronavirus are a large group of viruses that affect both birds and mammals. There are hundreds of coronavirus. Only seven specie affect people. Three are of economic importance. Classification of living things has seven levels which starts from kingdom and ends in species. The name coronavirus is a genus and split into four genera which ar...

Covid-19 drug or Vaccine The world is battling a pandemic that is affecting both the rich and poor. It is called covid-19. There is no drug or vaccine available yet to treat or prevent it. There is currently several research for a drug and or vaccine. The expected time these would be available is not until next year. Do we really need drugs or vaccines? Or do we need both of them? Let us find the answer to these questions. But before then, what is a vaccine and drug? Vaccine For Covid-19 A vaccine is a biological preparation (biologics) that provides active acquired immunity to a particular infection disease. It consists of part of a disease causing microbe. It is often gotten from weakened or killed forms of the microbe, it's toxin or one of the surface proteins. The agent stimulates the body immune system to recognize and destroy any of the microbes associated with that agent it may encounter in the future. Read Also : What may hinder covid-19 vaccine development and ...

To help find a cure for covid-19, China released the virus sequence in January 2020. Immediately, the world swung into action. Now there were two options open. First is to design and develop a vaccine using a standard process. That will take years to achieve and may eventually not work. The second option is to follow the recent theoretical vaccine process that has shown to be effective in human clinical trials. With over 100 vaccine candidates on covid-19 currently at different stages of development, the first sets which will bypass so many of the normal clinical processes based in the emergency response will be available in about a year's time. And that will be next year. According to the world health organization (WHO), a vaccine will not be readily available to the public until after 18 months. Read Also : When covid-19 vaccine will be available There are three main models that are currently under development for the theoretical approach. They are nucleic acid, viral vect...

Over the years, the world has had to battle different types of emerging diseases. They exhibit different patterns of spread and fatality. Some are epidemic localized or pandemic. Others are just an outbreak of interest. However, the government response to these disease determine how well it is manage. The approach is usually determined by the mode of transmission and partial fatality . The most recent disease is covid-19 cause by coronavirus. Read Also: Nigeria covid-19 situation Covid-19 has changed the landscape worldwide. This is the first time the world is experiencing a global pandemic of this magnitude since the beginning of this century with the last one in 1918 called the Spanish flu. How Dangerous Is Covid-19 The approach presently adopted for managing covid-19 is similar to how Spanish flu was managed. Currently, there is no cure for covid-19. The target is to break the chain of transmission. The rate of transmission of covid-19 is R0 (R naught) 3. This is t...

One of the fundamental patient rights is confidentiality. Patient confidentiality is the right an individual has to personal identifiable medical information kept private. Information about a patient is only accessible to the patient's physician. Third parties access to the data is subject to approval from the patient. Covid-19 patient The reason for such a right is to protect the patient. Some patients suffer harm when the wrong person gets to know their medical information. For example, human immune virus (HIV)/Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) victims face stigma from the public. Disclosing the identity of HIV/AIDS victims can lead to stigma which can lead to loss of job. In worse scenario suicide can occur. Read Also : Patients right and limitations However, medical personnel can share information about a patient's conditions among themselves or to the general public. The patient demographic such as name, address, phone number and other identifiable data ...

Covid-19 could be transmitted through drinking water! will be the most devastating news headline. For now there is no such news. Let's pray it remains so. Because if it is water borne disease like some viruses, expect the worst. The idea came to my mind the day I bought bottle water. As I opened it to cool my mind and quench my thirst, a dirty thought came over me. What if the worker at the water factory is infected and asymptomatic? What if the worker sneezes in the water before sealing? What if the water process is contaminated with covid-19? What if I drink this water? What if I could get infected from drinking the water? What if…. Read Also : 5g cannot be the cause of covid-19 or covid-19 related death Let us look at what scientists are saying about covid-19 and drinking water. The covid-19 virus has been shown to survive outside a living tissue or cell. Depending on the surface and environmental factors, it can survive for hours to days. The maximum that has been deter...

Isolation There have been doubts about covid-19 in Nigeria. The major debate was the identity of those infected. However, as news of it's spread keeps increasing daily, other questions have been raised. Many Nigerians are unsure how the fatality rate in Nigeria is so small compared to other countries. They wonder what is the treatment in Nigeria and if it is different from other countries. This blog post will find an answer to that. Read Also : Why choose 14 days for quarantine Covid-19 is a viral infection that can infect the lungs. Not everybody that is infected will develop symptoms. The body has a natural immune system in place to fight off infection. The body develops most of these immune systems from previous infection. Some people have a stronger immune system than others. There are various reasons for that. The major thing is a healthy lifestyle and good health. Those with weak immune systems can boost it with drugs. When a person is infected with covid-19, the b...

Facemask decontamination COVID-19 pandemic brought about so many problems. With limited availability of personal protective equipment (PPE) for health care workers, there is a major shift for alternatives. One area many people are looking at is how long can this equipment be used and if possible reuse. This is because the manufacturer recommendation for most of these equipment are usually one for a patient after which they are properly disposed of. But that cannot be possible in a pandemic. When a medical doctor is required to see up to 100 COVID-19 patients in a hospital, changing PPE for each patient will cost the country a huge amount of money. The current recommendation now is to use one for all the patients and dispose of them properly. Presently, the health care system of most countries have been overstretched and that is not even feasible right now. Read Also: Types of facemasks The last alternative is to decontaminate. There is no approved decontamination method....

The covid-19 disease is spreading and spreading real fast. It has spread across over 200 countries killing people on the way. With little information available to health care workers about the virus, prevention methods have revolved around hygiene. Washing hands with soap and running warm water has been the golden advice. However, in cases where there is none available, other options like the use of hand sanitizer could prove helpful. Read Also : Prevention tips for covid-19 (coronavirus) Some other prevention methods include sneezing into disposable tissue paper or a folded arm and social distancing. Facemask and handglove is used by health care experts. Some prevent infection from droplets while others include the more small aerosols. Some countries are enforcing the use of these medical materials for every person coming out of their home. Some people who live in countries that have no law on the use of these materials still use them. Many prefer the more expensive ones. Because ...

Since the beginning of the covid-19 (coronavirus) pandemic, scientists have been working on a solution. Focus is on either a drug to cure it or a vaccine to prevent it. A drug for a cure relies on either existing drugs or research and development of a new candidate. Research into existing drugs takes a shorter time when compared to research and development into a new candidate. However, many of the existing drugs are not giving a perfect result. Although chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine has shown some degree of success. Developing an existing drug is time consuming and difficult. The development follows several processes. However many pharmaceutical companies are on it. Read Also : Drug development and production process As for vaccine development, they are products that produce immunity from disease. The key ingredient in a vaccine is an inactive or weakened form of an organism such as bacteria and virus. They are relatively safer than the infection itself. Now, many people a...