There is need to distinguish between RT-PCR positives and clinical cases of Covid-19

Insisting on the need to distinguish between RT-PCR positives and clinical cases of Covid-19, an open letter by 20 doctors and medical professionals:

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• Firstly the virus has gone through the Indian population enough and is now well established as an endemic infection which shall keep causing flu like illness in only few people as most will not even develop severe symptoms.
• The ICMR had already called for the suspension of testing anyone not having any symptoms (Jan 2022).
• Children have been shown to tackle the virus much easier than adults. Children also do not pass Covid infection to others that easily as adults do to children. Schools have opened and no single outbreak or incidences of severe disease have been documented.
• Therefore healthy children must not be tested for Covid anymore unless the treating doctor in hospitalised cases requires it.
• Calling people (children or adults) with RT-PCR positive report as “cases” is faulty. A “case” is a person who has disease and presents with clinical symptoms and on subsequent testing is diagnosed as a clinical case of Covid. Please do not call all RT-PCR positives as “cases”. In fact, the term Covid-19 is defined as illness/disease, and it cannot be applied to someone who has no symptoms/illness, merely on the basis of some test.
• The public should be given complete and relevant information. How many tested positive for RT-PCR is not relevant. Report instead on hospitalization, and include information on comorbidities and age. Reporting should also give equal weightage to other major killer diseases such as tuberculosis, cancer, etc.
• Giving an incomplete picture amounts to misinformation and fear mongering. If the true and complete picture is presented, the public will not get into fear or panic, and we will be able to take rational decisions.
• It is responsible media reporting that can keep the public rightly informed rather than misinformed or ill-informed.

The undersigned (each in individual capacity),

1. Dr. Amitav Banerjee, MD, Clinical Epidemiologist, Prof & Head, Community Medicine, Dr DY Patil Medical College, Pune
2. Dr. Praveen K Saxena, MBBS, DMRD, FCMT, Hyderabad
3. Dr. Veena Raghava, MBBS, DA, Clinical Nutrition (NIN), Bengaluru
4. Dr. Vijay Raghava, MBBS (Family Physician), Bengaluru
5. Dr. Arvind Singh Kushwaha, MD, Nagpur
6. Dr. Maya Valecha, MD, DGO, Vadodara, Gujarat
7. Dr. Megha Consul, MD, DNB Paediatrics, Clinical Fellow (University of Western Ontario), Gurugram
8. Dr. Abhay Chheda, BHMS, CCAH, FCAH (Director, Centre For Cosmic Homoeopathy), Mumbai
9. Dr. Firuzi Mehta BHMS (Mum.) HMD (Lon.) IACH DIHom (Gr.) - Homeopathic physician, Mumbai
10. Dr. Mufassil Dingankar, BHMS, ADND, MSc, Consultant Physician & Medical Researcher, Thane
11. Dr. Srinivas Kakkilaya, MBBS, MD, Physician, Mangaluru
12. Dr. Gayatri Panditrao, BHMS, PGDEMS, Homoeopathic Physician, Pune
13. Dr. Susan Raj - B.Sc. Nurse; MSW (M&P) Behavior Specialist; Doctorate-Humanities; Certified Mineral Therapist; Director Sustainable Arogya Awas Foundation, Dist. Rajnandgaon State Chhattisgarh
14. Dr. Lalit Kumar Anande, MBBS, Ex Medical Superintendent Group of TB Hospitals
(Mumbai), Special Interest in treatment of Drug Resistance TB and it's Complications + Anti Oxidant Therapies
15. Dr. K Arul, MBBS, FMMC, Integrative Physician, Chennai
16. Dr Sudhir Jagtap, MD (Medicine) Consultant Physician, Nutrition and Wellness Advisor, Pune
17. Dr. Gautam Das, MBBS, Kolkata
18. Dr. Manigreeva Krishnatreya, MBBS, DLO, MHA (P), Physician and cancer researcher, Guwahati
19. Dr. Geraldine Sanjay, B.Sc, MBBS, DFM, MD, Assistant Professor, SABVMCRI, Bengaluru
20. Dr. N. K. Sharma, ND, Ph.D., Founder Chairman Reiki Healing Foundation, Delhi