Dr Lancelot Pinto, senior respirologist, P D Hinduja Hospital, Mumbai, provides key facts on this difficult disease from which Ustad Zakir Hussain died on Sunday.
'Assuming he has a sensitive bug, which is responsive to antibiotics, it may not necessarily be the worst-case scenario.'
'It's almost like the tissue of the lung has a cancer spreading to it, which is causing scarring and rapidly progresses.'
'But it is only now being detected more via a test that costs about Rs 15,000 to Rs 20,000.' 'The HMPV virus typically causes mild respiratory symptoms in most people, but can be more severe in young children, the elderly, and those with compromised immunity.'
Battling the virus, enduring separation from loved ones, and working extended hours became part of the job.
'If a doctor is kind of trying to say that there's an urgency, relatives should definitely get a second opinion.'
'There are no drugs to be given in the first week, if you have been hospitalised.' 'If you're getting any drug, that drug is likely to be unnecessary.' 'Or the hospitalisation is unnecessary.'
'The vast majority of people are going to get better.' 'And the small fraction, who are not going to get better, unfortunately, there's no drug that we have that can that can alter the trajectory.'
'When you are on these drugs, there is a possibility that you come to the hospital late, just by virtue of the fact that you believe that things are going to turn around, because you are on all these medicines.'
'You will still want to take all the necessary precautions, which is the right thing to do.'
You could be suffering from sleep paralysis, says Dr Lancelot Mark Pinto.
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