Take everything but the kitchen sink

Joy's friends and relatives are all calling her because they are testing positive to Covid.

They all know I am a doctor, so are asking me for a second opinion. 

Sigh.

Most of them are put on a steroid, vitamins, and zithromax (azithromycin), plus salbutamol if they have asthma, and sometimes oxygen as needed (they are even using pulse oximeters to monitor you, so if it falls you are told to go to the ER)

Now they have started to add adding Ivermectin 15 mg daily to the mix, (which now can be prescribed by doctors because the animal version was being used anyway, so the DOH decided it was okay)

 because hey it won't hurt will it?

and then some are using local herbal remedies: one cousin was put on Lagundi, Virgin Coconut oil, and Lianhua Qingwen along with her azithromycine and ivermectin.

Here are two videos discussing these herbe, plus other less popular ones (tawitawi is an herbal dengue remedy approved for Dengue)

 Lagundi: a local herb based remedy for coughs and bronchitis, is in the pharmacy as a cough medicine. The gov't is doing a study on this, but for mild cases only. 

and a Chinese herbal medicine used for COPD and lung problems was prescribed for one cousin: Lianhua Qinwen is a Chinese herbal medicine used for broncitis/COPD and asthma and is now being investigated for Covid.

here is the article from Plos:

Traditional Chinese medicine Lianhua Qingwen treating corona virus disease 2019(COVID-19): Meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

conclusion: it sort of works in small studies so let's do a huge study to check it out.

 Sigh.

the real problem with using herbs is that these herbs are found in your garden, so the temptation is to pick them and voila, cheap cures.

but the dirty little secret is that the active ingredient may vary from leaf to leaf, and that often it is hard to measure the correct dosage.

(one of our outreaches in Africa was working with herbalists to have them concoct and bottle their remedies with exact instructions so the dosages could be better regulated: home made remedies were a common cause of death in the sick who couldn't tolerate the regular dosage, or in children who were given the adult dosage).

as for the west, we prefer fancy scientific stuff that might or might not work: such as monoclonal antibodies, 

And Florida has been lax in masking etc. but hey, you can get a shot of monoclonal antibodies for free LINK

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update: 

This outbreak is hitting us worse than the original one, maybe because it is the delta varient, which spreads easier and causes a worse disease.

and of course, the vaccination rate is low here in the Philippines: about  12 percent of the population is fully vaccinated.

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one more update: There is also an epidemic of lung infection in toddlers here. 

I said in an earlier post that it is probably RSV, a nasty virus that causes broncholitis, and is being diagnosed in a lot of kids in the USA.

And maybe I am right, since the Twins, (our cook's great grandkids, one of whom has been in an out of the hospital for various infections), tested negative for covid.