UPDATE on the Status of COVID-19 VACCINES

With the advent of fast-paced technology and media reports, we can surmise that with the COVID-19 pandemic, the development of a vaccine can also be at a record speed but reading an article by Dr. Sanjay Gupta at CNN, this reality is grim so far regarding COVID-19 Vaccine Development.

1 Revealing Point: According to the Milken Institute, although there are 254 treatments and 172 vaccines currently in development to fight COVID-19, so far, there is only 1 PUBLISHED STUDY of a vaccine which is trialed in Humans. Other vaccines/treatment in development are either press-releases or pre-print reports.

Photo Credit: European Pharmaceutical Review

For those who have no idea on the significance of a Published Study on vaccine development or any other thing basically is this - published studies are subjected to peer review, which by essence brings down the expertise of most if not all of the science disciplines to screen this studies and POINT SOME POTENTIAL ERRORS of the study that may be unintentional and also makes the study and eventually the science or the vaccine BETTER.

Bakit Nga Ba Tinutubo ang Pasyente? (Indications for Intubation for the Layperson)

By: Viktoria Ines Matibag, MD

Siguro naman nakakita na kayo ng mga pasyenteng nakatubo sa mga drama. Maraming maling konsepto na tinuturo katulad na lamang ng: 

1. Nagtutubo lamang ang pasyente kapag wala nang pulso, 
2. Hindi nakakapag salita ang may tubo dahil nga nasa daluyan ito ng hangin,
3. Hindi makakahinga ang pasyente kapag may tubo.

Translation: Don't mistake medical drama series in TV for the real thing. Often times, there are specific important details that is missed out in TV that if you missed it out in real life could result to patients getting harmed. These are the common misconceptions about Intubation: 

1. We only intubate patient if they are already dead or has no pulse 
2. The patient can't express himself if a patient is intubated 
3. The patient can't breathe if he/she is intubated because a TUBE is inserted down his THROAT!

Deep Tendon Reflex

In a normal person, when a muscle tendon is tapped briskly, the muscle immediately contracts due to a two-neuron reflex arc involving the spinal or brainstem segment that innervates the muscle. The afferent neuron whose cell body lies in a dorsal root ganglion innervates the muscle or Golgi tendon organ associated with the muscles; the efferent neuron is an alpha motoneuron in the anterior horn of the cord. The cerebral cortex and a number of brainstem nuclei exert influence over the sensory input of the muscle spindles by means of the gamma motoneurons that are located in the anterior horn; these neurons supply a set of muscle fibers that control the length of the muscle spindle itself.

Hyporeflexia is an absent or diminished response to tapping. It usually indicates a disease that involves one or more of the components of the two-neuron reflex arc itself.

Hyperreflexia refers to hyperactive or repeating (clonic) reflexes. These usually indicate an interruption of corticospinal and other descending pathways that influence the reflex arc due to a suprasegmental lesion, that is, a lesion above the level of the spinal reflex pathways.