Live data from Hacker News

Chloroquine has shown apparent efficacy in treatment of Covid-19

jstage.jst.go.jp

151–160 of 269 posts

Re: Chloroquine has shown apparent efficacy in treatment of Covid-19

#151

> It is on the World Health Organization's List of Essential Medicines, the safest and most effective medicines needed in a health system ... The wholesale cost in the developing world is about US$0.04. In the United States, it costs about US$5.30 per dose. [1] That's a little over 132x more expensive. Compared to other common medicines like ibuprofen ($0.04 in the developing world, $0.05 in the USA [2]), what makes…

The Lancet has published a study this week that anti-inflamatory drugs may help Ncovid penetrate cell walls and actually speed up the process.

France has stopped over-the-counter sales of Ibuprofen as of mid January.

https://www.afrinik.com/anti-inflammatory-drugs-can-make-cor...

Re: Chloroquine has shown apparent efficacy in treatment of Covid-19

#152
post #138
post #120

For French speakers, a talk yesterday from Didier Raoult who is also testing Chloroquine in France [1] (and I believe who originally discovered the anti-viral benefits of that molecule on certain viruses). He finds that it reduces significantly the viral charge. He made an interesting point. It appears infected people remain contagious for 3 weeks. Taking this drug allows to significantly reduce this period. The curr…

Dr Raoult reports that after 6 days of treatment with Plaquenil (hydroxychloroquine) only 25% were still carrying the virus. Without treatment, 80% were still carrying the virus after 6 days. This result should be published soon.

But does that mean anything? Without hydroxychloroquine, how many people stop shedding active virus because the immune system starts to respond by day 6 of symptoms? It seems to be about the same.

Re: Chloroquine has shown apparent efficacy in treatment of Covid-19

#153

i currently take Plaquenil (Hydroxychloroquine) for rheumatoid arthritis, and my doctor did indicate it may be helpful against Covid but not enough tests to confirm. Is it close enough to chloroquine to be the same ?

The paper says clinical tests used both chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine. In discussing the results, they don't seem to differentiate between the two, unless I missed it.

[deleted]

Re: Chloroquine has shown apparent efficacy in treatment of Covid-19

#154
post #44

This is an increadibly potent drug with serious side effects according to anything I read, its not first-line treatment its last-line, when everything else fails. You can go blind, irreversibly. Please people, speak to trained medical people before reaching to the drug cabinet. I am not a doctor. This advice is not meant to contradict the rule of only taking medical advice from medical professionals.

Growing up in Kenya in the 80s, it was common to take chloroquine as an anti-malarial medicine. I took it several times and the same applied to almost every other person I knew. Other than being a very bitter medicine, I do not remember any other side effects. This was commonly prescribed and available over the counter. However, in the 90s, doctors started encouraging people to take newer anti-malarial medicines because the of drug resistance of the malaria parasites. However,I know of only one person who ever got blind from taking anti-malarial medicine and that was not exactly chloroquine but quinine. There are differences between the two. As per the Wikipedia page, chloroquine is considered a safe and essential medicine by the WHO.

Re: Chloroquine has shown apparent efficacy in treatment of Covid-19

#155

i currently take Plaquenil (Hydroxychloroquine) for rheumatoid arthritis, and my doctor did indicate it may be helpful against Covid but not enough tests to confirm. Is it close enough to chloroquine to be the same ?

And as discussed previously before in many submissions, hydroxichloroquine is already actively being used against Covid19 by at least the following EU countries:

- Belgium - Netherlands - Switzerland - Italy

Re: Chloroquine has shown apparent efficacy in treatment of Covid-19

#156
post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dr Raoult reports that after 6 days of treatment with Plaquenil (hydroxychloroquine) only 25% were still carrying the virus. Without treatment, 80% were still carrying the virus after 6 days. This result should be published soon.

But does that mean anything? Without hydroxychloroquine, how many people stop shedding active virus because the immune system starts to respond by day 6 of symptoms? It seems to be about the same.

The comment you reply to says that.

Re: Chloroquine has shown apparent efficacy in treatment of Covid-19

#157
post #154
post #44

This is an increadibly potent drug with serious side effects according to anything I read, its not first-line treatment its last-line, when everything else fails. You can go blind, irreversibly. Please people, speak to trained medical people before reaching to the drug cabinet. I am not a doctor. This advice is not meant to contradict the rule of only taking medical advice from medical professionals.

Growing up in Kenya in the 80s, it was common to take chloroquine as an anti-malarial medicine. I took it several times and the same applied to almost every other person I knew. Other than being a very bitter medicine, I do not remember any other side effects. This was commonly prescribed and available over the counter. However, in the 90s, doctors started encouraging people to take newer anti-malarial medicines beca…

I realise even quinine is in the list of essential medicines and also considered safe by the WHO.

Re: Chloroquine has shown apparent efficacy in treatment of Covid-19

#158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not uniquely. USA is famous for very high prices of essential medicines, and being an expensive country in general.

This was already implied in the question. They're asking why something like ibuprofen is different.

Maybe because it's one of few medicines being sold by foreign companies in USA?

America doesn't have a lot of opportunities for foreign players, let alone in such militantly overregulated sector like medicines.

Re: Chloroquine has shown apparent efficacy in treatment of Covid-19

#159

Why haven't the markets reacted positively to this news?

Guessing why the markets do something is like reading the future in the guts of a chicken!

But I think the market is reacting not to the virus, which by itself would have a limited economic impact (and if you think that it affects mostly the elderly, from a pure, cold economic point of view, would rather reduce the long term burden on healthcare, so would be a net economic benefit).

I think the market instead reacts to the actions taken to contain the virus, which will likely severely supress the economic activity. Until there is any sign of these actions being reversed (and everything is pointing to the opposite, with France and the EU hinting at more restrictions yesterday), it is rational for the market to be bearish.

Then as always there are other considerations, stocks were overly expensive, economic cycles, over leverage, etc.

Re: Chloroquine has shown apparent efficacy in treatment of Covid-19

#160
post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can just buy it over-the-counter in some countries, right? How dangerous can it really be? Follow the instructions on the box like citizens of those countries do. IMO we in the US need to take the coronavirus as a wake up call to stop ignoring the medical systems of other countries and admit that they might have something to teach us. We shouldn’t just assume the American medical system is always the best one.

> You can just buy it over-the-counter in some countries, right? How dangerous can it really be? That's absolutely meaningless, some countries are nuts. Just about anything gets sold over the counter somewhere. There's even countries where guns are sold over the counter.

Given that governments of these countries are actually doing something in response, covid-19 must be way more dangerous than guns. Oh.
Post reply on HN