SARS epidemic can teach us how to handle SARS-Cov- 2/COVID-19 pandemic.

Ankit Lekhra
2 min readApr 7, 2020

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Let’s not waste time, we are running out of it.

I am trying to understand the SARS epidemic (2003).

Like to share some quick findings.

The most notable laboratory finding in SARS is profound lymphopenia. CD4+ T cells were reduced in all patients, CD8+ cells in 87%, B-lymphocytes in 76%, and natural killer cells in 55% of patients. In patients who recover from SARS, there is a rapid restoration of lymphocytes in peripheral blood.

Here is the link of the paper: https://www.nature.com/articles/pr2004163#Tab1

Illustration of SARS virus, a member of the Coronavirus family

Now, I thought to see if the same effect is occurring in SARS-COV2 (Covid-19) patients. In one of the studies published in Nature, this was the conclusion.

In conclusion, lymphopenia is an effective and reliable indicator of the severity and hospitalization in COVID-19 patients. We suggest that TLM should be included in the diagnosis and therapeutic guidelines of COVID-19.

Here is the link to the study: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41392-020-0148-4

Establishment and validation of Time-LYM% model (TLM) in patients with COVID-19

An additional link on ECMO (have to be verified): https://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lanres/PIIS2213-2600(20)30119-3.pdf

I hope the studies will be useful in understanding the effects of the virus and saving lives.

I request you to please share with researchers, doctors, universities, hospitals, governments and anyone who is fighting the Covid-19 pandemic.

Also, we have published reports and findings on coronavirus, if you need, please get in touch with us at contact@incubig.com.

Thank you.

Ankit Lekhra,

Founder, Incubig-Research Intelligence platform.

www.incubig.com

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Ankit Lekhra
Ankit Lekhra

Written by Ankit Lekhra

Founder at Incubig | Patent & research intelligence | IIT Guwahati