Hydroxychloroquine is not a cure

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April 6, 2020, in a news conference, Trump expressed his hope that hydroxychloroquine, a treatment that is commonly used to treat malaria and lupus, will provide treatment for COVID-19 patients. This is not a confirmed cure, and the president is not a licensed doctor.

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Edited by An Admin Team:

Please do not discuss politics.

Please do not discuss President Trump.

Please keep the discussion about the UNAPPROVED drug Hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19.

NOTE: Posts that do not comply with the above directive will be deleted.

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Specializes in Travel, Home Health, Med-Surg.

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/apr/2/hydroxychloroquine-rated-most-effective-therapy-do/

https://abc7.com/coronavirus-drug-covid-19-malaria-hydroxychloroquine/6079864/

https://townhall.com/columnists/kevinmccullough/2020/03/29/hydroxychloroquine-help-is-on-the-way-n2565926

https://techcrunch.com/2020/03/19/french-study-finds-anti-malarial-and-antibiotic-combo-could-reduce-covid-19-duration/

Since we are seeing good results I am hopeful too!!

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Specializes in Vents, Telemetry, Home Care, Home infusion.

Science Direct:

Médecine et Maladies Infectieuses

30 March 2020

No Evidence of Rapid Antiviral Clearance or Clinical Benefit with the Combination of Hydroxychloroquine and Azithromycin in Patients with Severe COVID-19 Infection ( note 11 patients in study)

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0399077X20300858?via%3Dihub


Small Trial ( posted above) Suggests Antimalarial Drugs Not Effective For Treating Coronavirus

Quote

The study comes on the heels of two others - one in France and one in China - that reported some benefits in the combination of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin for COVID-19 patients who didn't have severe symptoms of the virus.

I am a medicinal chemist who has specialized in discovery and development of antiviral drugs for the past 30 years, and I have been actively working on coronaviruses for the past seven.

I am among a number of researchers who are concerned that this drug has been given too much of a high priority before there is enough evidence to show it is indeed effective.

There are already other clinical studies that showed it is not effective against COVID-19 as well as several other viruses. And, more importantly, it can have dangerous side effects, as well as giving people false hope.

The latter has led to widespread shortages of hydroxychloroquine for patients who need it to treat malaria, lupus and rheumatoid arthritis, the indications for which it was originally approved....

The idea that the combination of hydroxychloroquine with an antibiotic drug, azithromycin, was effective against COVID-19 gained more attention after a study published on March 17. This study described a trial of 80 patients carried out by Philippe Gautret in Morificeille, France.

Although some of their results appeared to be encouraging, it should also be noted that most of their patients only had mild symptoms. Furthermore, 85 percent of the patients didn't even have a fever – one of the major telltale symptoms of the virus, thus suggesting that these patients likely would have naturally cleared the virus without any intervention.

https://www.sciencealert.com/small-trial-found-antimalarial-is-not-effective-for-treating-coronavirus

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My apologies for a discussion that went outside the scope of nursing. We know that some meds (like Diphenhydramine) can be effective for more than one ailment. But I would never suggest to a patient to try a certain med when it has not been prescribed by a licensed doctor.

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Specializes in Emergency Department.
9 hours ago, Floor_Nurse said:

April 6, 2020, in a news conference, Trump expressed his hope that hydroxychloroquine, a treatment that is commonly used to treat malaria and lupus, will provide treatment for COVID-19 patients. This is not a confirmed cure, and the president is not a licensed doctor.

____________________________

Edited by An Admin Team:

Please do not discuss politics.

Please do not discuss President Trump.

Please keep the discussion about the UNAPPROVED drug Hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19.

NOTE: Posts that do not comply with the above directive will be deleted.

1 hour ago, Floor_Nurse said:

My apologies for a discussion that went outside the scope of nursing. We know that some meds (like Diphenhydramine) can be effective for more than one ailment. But I would never suggest to a patient to try a certain med when it has not been prescribed by a licensed doctor.

My apologies to Floor_Nurse and Admin for my post. I had intended it to be a humerous take on the situation and was not meant to hijack the thread. It was a post that I really could not resist making and again I apologise .

Floor nurse your post was fine it was my post that Admin moderated.

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Specializes in Critical care, tele, Medical-Surgical.

Outcomes of hydroxychloroquine usage in United States veterans hospitalized with Covid-19

... We performed a retrospective analysis of data from patients hospitalized with confirmed SARSCoV-2 infection in all United States Veterans Health Administration medical centers until April 11, 2020. Patients were categorized based on their exposure to hydroxychloroquine alone (HC) or with azithromycin (HC+AZ) as treatments in addition to standard supportive management for Covid-19. The two primary outcomes were death and the need for mechanical ventilation...

... CONCLUSIONS: In this study, we found no evidence that use of hydroxychloroquine, either with or without azithromycin, reduced the risk of mechanical ventilation in patients hospitalized with Covid-19. An association of increased overall mortality was identified in patients treated with hydroxychloroquine alone. These findings highlight the importance of awaiting the results of ongoing prospective, randomized, controlled studies before widespread adoption of these drugs...

https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.16.20065920v1.full.pdf

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Specializes in Critical care, tele, Medical-Surgical.

I was hopeful when first hearing and reading about hydroxychloroquine. But each new study so far shows no evidence to support it's use.

Observational Study of Hydroxychloroquine in Hospitalized Patients with Covid-19

METHODS: We examined the association between hydroxychloroquine use and intubation or death at a large medical center in New York City. Data were obtained regarding consecutive patients hospitalized with Covid-19, excluding those who were intubated, died, or discharged within 24 hours after presentation to the emergency department (study baseline)...

... CONCLUSIONS: In this observational study involving patients with Covid-19 who had been admitted to the hospital, hydroxychloroquine administration was not associated with either a greatly lowered or an increased risk of the composite end point of intubation or death. Randomized, controlled trials of hydroxychloroquine in patients with Covid-19 are needed...

https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2012410

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(Some of this is repeated info.)


Hydroxychloroquine is a med used to prevent or treat malaria (caused by mosquito bites). It also can be used to treat certain auto-immune diseases like lupus. Besides the adverse heart-related side effects (slow heartbeat, shortness of breath, swelling ankles), it can cause nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, mood changes, depression, and more.

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