Coronavirus In North Alabama: In Depth Part 1

Dr Ali Hassoun, an Infectious Disease Specialist with Huntsville Hospital

Shoppers that don't feel comfortable yet.

Reporting live in athens.

>> najahe sherman: every night at 6:00 p.m.

We are taking you deep into the impact of the coronavirus.

Tonight i am joined by dr. ali hassoun, an infectious disease specialist from huntsville hospital.

Thank you so much for being with us.

>> thank you.

>> najahe sherman: a lot of stores are deciding to wait until the weekend to open.

What are your thoughts on the safer-at home order.

>> i was really hoping she should have delayed a little bit of that, at least two more weeks but now it's already set to go.

I think we need to remember the rules is going to be the same about physical distancing is very important, at least six feet apart if possible.

Hand hygiene is essential and then in the stores they need tof these areas.

They really need to pay good attention to their employee as well as who's visiting to have that physical distance.

The other part, if you're sick, please go home.

Don't go out because you might cause infection to others.

>> najahe sherman: really important as we make this transition to remember all the rules in place and continue to be mindful of them.

In your opinion what are the keys to finally reopening alabama?

>> i think the essential keys which have been highlighted multiple times is one would be reduction in the cases of coronavirus in the state and i would say in the surrounding areas as well.

In addition to the wide availability of testing and then continuous reduction of patient weather hospitalized or in the community.

And that's why my main thought would be hopefully there will be a little bit of delay but i think in general madison county has been doing well in the number of cases and it's been really stable.

The main worry is the other counties.

>> najahe sherman: someone can cross over from another location , a nearby city and spread the virus.

What would you like to see before restaurants and slons open.

>> i hope in that part we continue to see significant decline in the cases and at the same time our ability to trace and track all the cases in a way so if we get any exposure, whether in a restaurant or in a shop, we can go back and try to track whoever got exposed.

And that's really essential so we can in a way able to quarantine them.

But at the same time reduce the chances of widespread infection.

That's very, very important.

>> najahe sherman: and in terms of finally reopening alabama, when do you project a time line for that, in your opinion?

This is probably going to be another two to four weeks.

As you see reduction in numbers, i think the next few weeks is going to be very important because you know the virus, if it causes infection it takes about seven days of incubation period.

And another few days for signs and symptoms. so if we're going to see any increase it's going to be another couple of weeks and could be three to four weeks even.

It's going to be some time are we seeing a reduction or we're seeing an increase and hold on not releasing more rules about relax in this case.

>> najahe sherman: we have been hearing a lot about remdesivir.

What makes this drug special?

>> so remdesivir, you know, been used before and tried for ebola, been tried for the sars as well as the mrsa which is another type of coronavirus.

The hope it's going to have a benefit in covid-19 patients.

You know, there is some reports yesterday in the news about possibility of benefit, but i can tell you i'll be really cautiously optimistic about this because there hasn't been a full release release about that study in the n.i.h.

So we really need to be waiting to see the full report so clinicians, scientists , and researchers can have a look at that and assess is it beneficial, how far, is it going to be effective for everyone, or certain population infected.

Because on the other hand there's been some report ram december remdesivir may not be as effective.

We have to be careful interpreting what's coming up in the news.

We need to see the full report.

>> najahe sherman: we can remain optimistic but need to wait and see.

Why, in your opinion, does this medicine seem to be seeing more results?

>> i think it's mainly because it's been shown it have some effect on the virus in general.

Including the coronaviruses different species.

And there is hope it might have effect on the specific covid patient.

Because it have specific anti- viral activity and compared to other medicine we've been trying, all the other medicine might have shown possibility but is not as, you know -- what remdesivir is showing.

So remedies remdesivir is being more unique in that part because of its anti-viral activity.

>> najahe sherman: huntsville hospital saying some of the patients given the drug reduced their hospital stay from to 11 days from 14.

Do we know if it's saving lives or just basically cutting down on time in the hospital?

>> at the time this is from the n.i.h.

More there is possibility to cut down on hospitalization but the mortality rate between those who took the real drug versus the placebo, what we call was not statistically significant.

It made a little bit of a difference, but it wasn't a significant change between the two.

Again, that's why we're saying we really need the full information to get a better idea , is it really effective and is it just severe cases?

Is it mild, moderate.

All this information unfortunately we don't have it yet.

>> najahe sherman: do we know yet if the drug will be used on, for say patients in i.c.u.?

>> so and that's what the n.i.h.

Trial was, those who were in the i.c.u.

But not intubated.

You know, there is other ongoing trial for those intubated, there's others for mild to moderate.

So there's a lot of stuff on going as research.

And we really again, you hope by the end of may, sometime in june we might have a little bit better information on some of these trials.

>> najahe sherman: early on there was a lot of promise or at least there looked like there would be on hydroxychloroquine.

Is it too early to know if the drug is going to have some of the same issues?

>> i think it's a little bit early.

There was early report of possible issues of side effect toxicity but in that n.i.h.

Trial, you know, again we didn't have that information.

Usually the safety board of any trial will assess that on multiple stages.

So it might be a little assuring we haven't heard yet there is a major event but minor ones it could be happening.

Again, this is gonna take time, at least several months until we know is it really safe because as you know, when you run trials , you can have some safety events but what's going to happen is when it really got used in