The Health Ministry’s guidelines for managing COVID-19 ignore evidence, pricing, cost-effectiveness and social relevance. While most practitioners have moved away from prescribing hydroxychloroquine, it still remains in the guidelines released by the Health Ministry on April 22. While formulating national-level guidelines, the most important factors are strength of evidence, pricing, cost-effectiveness and social relevance. With more than 80% of COVID-19 patients having only mild symptoms, patients with asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) may run out of inhalers. Moreover, according to the PRINCIPLE trial, a trial only in pre-print, budesonide improves only self-reported symptoms in mildly sick patients.

Source: The Hindu April 28, 2021 18:45 UTC