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Published on: February 11, 2022
"Oxygen Pheriwala:" An innovative model for SARS-CoV-2 screening in resource-limited settings
Vijaya Nath Mishra1, Varun Kumar Singh2, Abhishek Pathak3
1Professor, Department of Neurology, Institute of Medical Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India.
Abstract:
The second wave of SARS-CoV-2 infection came as a hypoxic emergency and situation became worse in rural India, where undiagnosed COVID-19 patients died without any diagnosis or intervention. The primary aim of this innovative model was the early diagnosis of suspected SARS-CoV-2 cases, providing empirical treatment and timely referral to appropriate COVID care facilities. Fever was measured with infrared thermometer and oxygen saturation level with pulse oximeter. A total of 8203 people were screened, of which 274 persons were febrile and 69 (25%) were hypoxic too. Sixty-four out of 69 (93%) patients turned COVID-19 positive on reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction. At the end of 3 weeks, 48/64 (75%) patients were successfully discharged. This model can be easily implemented in resource-limited regions to identify and prioritize the patients not only in this pandemic but also in outbreak of other communicable diseases.
