Image Source: TIMES NOW

Amidst the rising cases of the novel coronavirus infections around the world and in India, medical experts and researches are looking at both new and old ways of treatment of related conditions like pneumonia, SARS, and others. According to a recent report in TOI, doctors at AIIMS, Delhi, are conducting a study to see if radiation therapy can reduce the severity of COVID-19, the disease caused due to the novel coronavirus or SARS-CoV-2.
According to the report, in the 1940s, before the first antibiotic penicillin was discovered, doctors used radiation therapy to treat pneumonia. Radiation therapy is also known as X-ray therapy, and helps to reduce inflammation in the lungs, and may also help in preventing cytokine storms one of the most common reasons for death among COVID-19 patients. The novel coronavirus is also known to cause pneumonia in the lungs, apart from other health problems. Therefore, doctors are wondering if the same radiation therapy approach can help COVID-19 patients as well, and to find out, doctors are undertaking the pilot study, as confirmed by Dr Guleria, Director of AIIMS. Two COVID-19 patients, both of them in their 50s and under oxygen support due to severe symptoms have undergone radiation therapy that involved very low dosage of radiation – 70 cGy in a single fraction to the patient's lungs in a single sitting. After the therapy, both patients had normal X-ray reports, said Dr DN Sharma, principal investigator of the project, reported. One of the patients is reportedly now off the oxygen support, while another patient's oxygen requirement has drastically reduced from 10 litres a day, to 3 litres a day. Dr Sharma further said that 10 more COVID-19 patients will be given radiation therapy before July, and if they show positive results, the trial will be extended further. Emory University in the USA is also conducting a similar study. Radiation therapy is used as a treatment for cancer, however, the dose is much higher. 1/1000th dose of that is being used for trails among COVID-19 patients. This treatment method may help in preventing patients with mild and moderate symptoms to get severely sick and require oxygen support or ventilators. As of now, no specific cure of the novel coronavirus infection has been found. As medical experts and doctors work tirelessly to find treatment methods, the coronavirus pandemic has already claimed more than 4,35,000 lives, and the total number of cases is close to 8 million, as the number stands at 7.94 million as of now.