Skip to main content

WHO lauds Aarogya Setu app, says it helped to identify Covid-19 clusters

By Unknown

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has lauded India's Aarogya Setu mobile application for helping health departments to identify Covid-19 clusters. "Aarogya Setu app from India has been downloaded by 150 million users, and has helped city public health departments to identify areas where clusters could be anticipated and expand testing in a targeted way," WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a media briefing.

The app was launched by the government in April to protect citizens amid Covid-19. It is designed to inform users about any potential risk of coronavirus infection around them, best practices to stay healthy, and relevant/curated medical advisories pertaining to the pandemic.

Earlier, the WHO chief had also praised India’s efforts to contain coronavirus spread in Mumbai’s Dharavi slum.

Meanwhile, the ministry of health on Tuesday issued guidelines for the management of co-infection of Covid-19 with other seasonal epidemic-prone diseases.

With the aim of providing clear guidelines on prevention and treatment of co-infections of coronavirus with other diseases, the ministry said, "As per the WHO case definition, a Covid case may present with acute onset of fever and cough, or, acute onset of any three or more of the following signs or symptoms: fever, cough, general weakness or fatigue, headache, myalgia, sore throat, coryza, dyspnoea, anorexia, nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, altered mental status."

"This case definition, although sensitive, is not very specific. Seasonal epidemic prone diseases, as cited in the foregoing paragraphs may all present as febrile illness, with symptoms that mimic Covid-19. 

If there is a co-infection, then apart from the febrile illness there may be constellation of signs and symptoms that may lead to difficulty in diagnosis. A comparative analysis of disease onset, symptoms, signs, warning signs, complications and diagnosis is given at Annexure," the ministry added.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Iran, Russia Discussing Joint Production Of COVID-19 Vaccine

By Unknown
Iran and Russia's sovereign wealth fund RDIF are discussing the joint production of a vaccine against COVID-19, Russian news agencies cited the Iranian ambassador to Moscow as saying on Friday. "We are holding talks, I spoke with the head of RDIF Kirill Dmitriev, our officials have held several rounds of consultations and we announced that we will co-operate," Ambassador to Moscow Kazem Jalali was cited as saying. Thus far, Russia has struck a manufacturing partnership deal with India, which is due to produce 300 million doses of the 'Sputnik-V' vaccine domestically. It is also discussing such partnerships with several other countries, including Brazil.
Post a Comment
Read more

Increased risks of drop out for women and girls : CoronaVirus Updates

By Unknown
The total number of children not returning to their education after the school closures is likely to be significant. The pandemic also risks jeopardizing some of the gains made since 2001 in re-building women and girls’ education following the Taliban regime.  The COVID-19 pandemic is creating additional barriers due to risks—and students’ and parents’ anxiety about risks—associated with children returning to classrooms that are cramped, with no capacity for distancing, often cold, damp and poorly ventilated during the country’s severe winters, and have no or poor hygiene and clean water facilities. The COVID-19 pandemic is likely to drive many women and girls out of education permanently. School closures due to COVID-19, resulting increases in caregiving responsibilities for women and girls, and increases in poverty and unemployment will all make it harder for women and girls to study.  These factors combine in harmful ways with pre-existing discriminatory gender norms, o...
Post a Comment
Read more

Russia's Covid-19 vaccine Sputnik V available to public now: State media

By Unknown
First batches of Russia's Covid vaccine Sputnik V have entered "civil circulation" in capital Moscow, state media reported on Thursday. While details on the process were not immediately available, Russia has repeatedly stressed on producing the vaccine at the earliest, a belief met with international scepticism. Earlier this month, the Russian health ministry had said that batches of the Covid-19 vaccine were being produced for public distribution and would be supplied to different regions soon. "The first batch of the vaccine for preventing the novel coronavirus infection, Gam-COVID-Vac (Sputnik V) developed by the Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology of the Russian Health Ministry passed the required quality tests in the laboratories of Roszdravnadzor (the Federal Service for Surveillance in Healthcare) and was produced for civilian circulation. In the near future the supplies of the first batches of the vaccine to the regions are expected...
Post a Comment
Read more