Biocon Chairperson shares experience on Covid-19

Bengaluru: Executive Chairperson of Biocon Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, who recently recovered from Covid-19 infection, Tuesday shared some simple learnings of fighting the virus, adding that leveraging science is the only reliable way forward.

Sharing her experience, she was quoted by various online portals as saying: “My first symptoms were a mild feverish feeling late evening on August 16. I had similar symptoms in early June and had tested negative, so I just took a Crocin and thought that would take care of it.  The next morning though, I continued to feel feverish and my temperature was 99 F. That’s when I decided to test myself and my entire household, as I have my 89-year-old mother, a cancer survivor, and my 71-year-old husband, a cancer patient, to worry about. I immediately self-quarantined in a separate room and waited anxiously for the test results. At 5 pm, I was told that I tested positive but that everyone else at home, including my staff, tested negative. Mercifully, the virus spared my mom and my husband. I asked for the CT (Cycle Threshold) value to assess my viral load and when I saw it was 23, I felt the load was safe enough to be home quarantined under tele-supervision.

Dr Murli Mohan from Narayana Health, Bengaluru and Dr Shashank Joshi from Lilavati Hospital, Mumbai, were my key medical supervisors. I was put on a course of Favipiravir, azithromycin and paracetamol. Apart from this, I continued with my daily dose of Vitamin C, Vitamin D, Zinc, baby aspirin and chyavanprash!

My experience has been mild and uneventful. No loss of smell or taste and no drop in oxygen saturation. I recommend everyone with mild fluish symptoms to test and decide on hospitalisation or home quarantine based on viral load.

My constant companions were Netflix and Amazon Prime; avoid TV and social media as negative news is bad for fighting COVID-19.

My simple learnings:

1. Don’t panic on testing positive;

2. Make sure you assess your viral load based on CT value;

3. Mild symptoms with moderate viral load qualify for home isolation;

4. Monitor your oxygen saturation several times a day to ensure it doesn’t drop below 95%;

5. Make sure you are supervised by a doctor through a tele-health program;

6. Do yoga and walk as much as you can;

7. Your body will fight the virus in a week;

8. Doctors should not treat just the clinical symptoms but rather the cause of the symptoms.

9. Lack of early intervention in mitigating the inflammation and cytokine storm can cause post COVID-19 fatigue and respiratory ailments.

10. Finally, please test and present yourself as soon as you feel mild symptoms.

Do not be in denial and wait for more severe symptoms. You have reduced your chances of a mild disease by doing so.