Chloroquine Is Not a Finished Cure for COVID-19
Chloroquine is a medication used to treat malaria and other illnesses, and the president recently tweeted that it should be “IMMEDIATED” to treat COVID-19. Unfortunately, the experts don’t think so, so for heaven’s sake don’t ask your doctor friend to secretly write you a prescription.
What is Chloroquine?
Chloroquine and its related hydroxychloroquine are best known as antimalarial drugs. Malaria is caused by a microscopic parasite that infects mosquitoes, and chloroquine can kill the parasite once it enters your body.
It can also kill some other parasites in humans and other animals. Chloroquine phosphate is commonly used in aquaculture to treat parasites in fish.
Hydroxychloroquine is also used to treat autoimmune diseases, including lupus .
Both drugs can be toxic and cause vision and vision problems, so as with any treatment, it is important to balance the risks of side effects with the benefits of the drug for your condition. These are prescription drugs, so you should discuss this with your doctor if you have a medical condition that chloroquine can treat.
Can Chloroquine Treat COVID-19?
Maybe, but we don’t know yet. There are many research papers these days in which doctors report initial findings about COVID-19, but in a more common scenario, these results would have more time to analyze, test, and debate among scientists before anyone gives any. -or advice on what to use.
Unfortunately, these days it seems like anyone who hears about a preprint suddenly thinks of themselves as an expert.
It turns out that the president’s study of chloroquine in COVID-19 patients is far from definitive. First, it is very small. On the other hand, several patients who received the drug became worse, but they were not included in the results .
At Buzzfeed, Dan Vergano shared more details on the evidence behind the hype for this drug . In short: this is not impressive and the side effects of the drug are worrisome. We don’t know for sure if this works, and it may turn out to do more harm than good.
What if I want to stock up just in case?
Please do not.
Last week, people were in such desperate need of this medicine that the pharmacies were in short supply . Some states have issued orders restricting access to the drug, but it may be too late. I have seen a lupus patient on Twitter says that they are having trouble getting their usual prescriptions, and pharmacists with stories like this :
Yes, it’s a prescription drug, but some doctors write scripts for themselves and friends. And people who can’t get chloroquine from a prescription buy up the version used in fish traps. While researching this post, I constantly came across chloroquine pages on aquarium supply sites … all of which are out of stock.
This is not just a problem for the fish: the man has died and his wife is critically ill after taking chloroquine phosphate, which they originally bought for their koi pond. Please do not take fish medications or beg your doctor friends for unnecessary prescriptions.