BENGALURU: Omicron infected doctor from Bengaluru is all “fit and fine” after initial treatment of monoclonal antibody therapy. Though his symptoms were mild and nothing worrying he had taken the treatment to prevent risk of severity.
“This therapy has worked wonders with several patients who had taken during the second wave. Normally advised for those with risk factors but at the private hospital where he was initially admitted, after his HRCT scan showed some changes in lungs he was given a dose of anti-SARS-CoV-2 monoclonal antibodies on November 25. Though he had fever, chills and body ache in the early stages, the disease has not progressed. It’s day 14 and he is all fine now,” a senior doctor from Bowring hospital said.
The doctor, along with his ophthalmologist wife and two daughters, has been admitted at the dedicated Omicron isolation ward in the State-run Bowring and Lady Curzon Medical College and Research Institute. Daughters have tested negative and are attending classes online from the hosptial.
Speaking to the media, the 46-year-old anesthesiologist on Saturday said that he is normal and has no symptoms now.
The doctor spoke on the telephone to the media and said that he was “fit enough to even play a game of badminton!”
Reassuring people that there is no reason to worry about the new variant and also indicating lesser possibilities of him contracting the virus from the cardiology conference he said, “I don’t know where I have contracted the infection. I was there at the international conference event in the star hotel, which was mainly on hybrid mode and all other doctors present there were mostly localities. I was there only for an hour on November 20th,” he reiterated.
He explained that he however had no symptoms before going to the conference and just one day after that on November 21.
“By evening I had body pains, mild fever and chills"
On November 22 morning, he didn’t want to ignore these symptoms as he was also feeling fatigued he tested himself with both the RAT (Rapid Antigen Test) and RT-PCR test.
“RAT confirmed I was positive and by the same evening, RTPC-R also confirmed it. On November 22 itself I had isolated as I have young children and old parents staying with me,” he added.
After three days, on November 25, the doctor apparently experienced episodes of low blood pressure and experienced giddiness. There was a slight dip in oxygen saturation too. “That is why I got admitted to a private hospital and was there till November 29,” he explained.
He says he is also surprised at how the incubation period can be just 24 hours. He fears the virus may be out in the community itself and asks the health department to intensify testing.
“Any virus takes at least three to four days to incubate after entering the body. But this is a new variant and I don't have much information," he told reporters.
According to the treating doctors, his wife has a sore throat, severe myalgia and muscle pain apart from chills. She has been put on intravenous fluids and is recovering well.
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