Dr. Krutika Kuppalli, an Assistant Professor of Medical University of South Carolina and member of IndiaCovidSOS, joined Yahoo Finance to explain the current state of the COVID-19 crisis in India.

Video Transcript

- Anjalee, we're going to keep talking about these issues with Dr. Krutika Kuppalli, who is joining us right now. She is an assistant professor of Medical University at South Carolina. She's also a member of IndiaCovidSOS. We appreciate your joining us.

When you look at what's happening in India, do you have family there right now? And I hope they're doing well if you do. What do you want us to know, and what can we do as Americans to assist?

KRUTIKA KUPPALLI: Yeah, so I do have family there right now, and the situation in India is really quite challenging for a number of reasons. India, as many people know, has over 1 billion people, so the population density is a challenge. And the complex socioeconomic issues make the spread of COVID-19 really very difficult to help contain. And so I think that because of all these complex issues coming at an intersection right now, that's why we're seeing the situation really run rampant.

And I think as far as things that individuals in the United States can do, I think really advocating right now for the United States to really step up and be the world power that they want to be and continue to help provide support for India and also other countries around the world, right? India is not the only country that's hurting right now, but India is the one that's experiencing the most significant challenge right now.

And donating to reputable organizations that are trying to help in India right now on the ground. You know, they need things like oxygen, oxygen concentrators. They need things like PPE and other important resources.

- Dr. Kuppalli, Anjalee here. Looking at what is going on there, we know that a number of issues have been identified that contributed to the spread. Number one is Kumbh Mela. Number two is the political rallies, as well as a relaxing of rules and people not taking too seriously the spread or getting tired of following masking rules, not dissimilar to what we've seen here in the US.

I want to take a moment to point out the Union Health Minister, Dr. Harsh Vardhan, yesterday at a press briefing saying that one of the things contributing to hospital overflowing is that people are getting bad advice or not following advice and are running to hospitals and are not believing the information or don't have confidence in the information to know that they can, in large part, recover at home, though there are, of course, the cases that do need hospitalization.

And they know that you worked on this and developing an infographic to help spread that information. What are some of the other things that you've been able to identify and have heard from on the ground are contributing to this spread and the hospital-- the issues with hospitalization?

KRUTIKA KUPPALLI: Well, I think one of the things that's been really important to point out is exactly what you said. There's a lot of panic right now, and, you know, when people get COVID, they get very nervous and they run to the hospital. So that's been the number one thing. I think the second thing has also been that if people get admitted to the hospitals and they're on oxygen, if they get better, there's been a delay in getting people out of the hospital.

So really moving people through the system has been a challenge. So I think we need to identify ways to get people out of the hospital so we can get people who are really sick into the hospital. And I think also, you know, one of the reasons we developed this infographic was also to try and help people figure out how they can manage themselves at home and then also, you know, at what point it really is important to go to the hospital or call for medical care.

I think, you know, there has not been a good communication from the national government and the state government so people really understand, hey, if I do have COVID, I can manage myself at home, and these are the things that I should do. You know, I need to rest. I need to hydrate. I need to wear a face mask. I need to isolate.

And I think also, the other thing that's really important is when you have such high levels of coronavirus circulating in the environment right now, it's really important for people to just stay at home so they don't get infected if they're not infected. And that if you do have symptoms right now, those symptoms are going to be consistent with having coronavirus. And so, you know, just stay at home. Try and take care of yourself.

You can take paracetamol, which is the equivalent of acetaminophen over there, to try and help reduce some of those symptoms. And then if things progress, then that's when you need to try and seek medical attention.

- Doctor, we've seen record numbers coming out of India now for the last several days, over 360,000 yesterday. How much worse do you potentially fear that this situation could get there?

KRUTIKA KUPPALLI: Yeah, I unfortunately think that things are going to get much worse before they get better. If you look at some of the modeling data, they estimate that they're not going to hit their peak until the second week of May, and that's very concerning. And I think the other thing that we do need to keep in mind is that they're experiencing some of the challenges, unlike the ones that we faced here in the United States last year, challenges with testing.

You know, right now, they're really only implementing PCR testing, and there's a huge bottleneck with PCR testing. And so they really need to ramp up things like rapid testing over there. And they need to really see what's going on with case numbers. And so there's really a huge underreporting of the number of cases.

On top of that, we really don't know what's going on with the number of fatalities. So I think there's a huge lack of understanding of how many cases and how many fatalities are happening. And, you know, remember that the incubation period for this virus is about two weeks. And so we are going to see cases go up before they come back down.

And we really just need to, unfortunately, ride this out and really encourage people to embrace those important public health measures. Stay at home. Wear a face mask. And, as much as possible, physically distance. But given, again, the population dynamics there, that's really hard. So there's unfortunately going to be worse things happen before things get better.

- And doctor, I know that we've talked about this, but there's also some level of-- and that's something different than here in the US-- and that is the idea of hoarding. And we've heard the reports of remdesivir, possibly even with the oxygen cylinders, and that's why they're facing such a shortage. How do they get out of that? And, you know, is that really contributing to the-- to the problem with being able to help curb the spread?

KRUTIKA KUPPALLI: Well, definitely hoarding is a problem there. And it all stems, again, from the notion of panic, right? People are panicked. People are worried. And so all these things that people are worried about, then they go and try and find the medications, and then they buy up a lot. So, you know, there have been a hoarding of remdesivir. And then there's a huge black market for remdesivir. You know, if people can find it, they are paying lots and lots of money for it.

And, you know, quite frankly, remdesivir has not been shown really to work that well. And then the other medications, you know, things like steroids and then all these other unproven medications that are getting prescribed and, you know, combination with each other-- ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, vitamins, all these other things that people are hoarding. And so that becomes a problem.

And then on top of that, as you pointed out, oxygen. So there's a shortage. And part of it is the hoarding, and then part of it is also not really understanding when to use it and then people being on it for longer periods of time than they necessarily need. So, you know, again, this goes back to one of the reasons why we developed this infographic was to try and educate people as to, you know, when to take the medicines, under what conditions, so they're taking it appropriately to try and help them understand that really, you know, 80% of people who get coronavirus are going to do well.

They don't need medications. And really, the best treatment is going to be supportive care.

- Dr. Krutika Kuppalli, assistant professor of medicine at the University of South Carolina and a member of the IndiaCovidSOS, thank you for joining us. Anjalee, as always, thank you for the update.