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Warning: chloroquine has strong side-effects, and very high toxicity, unfortunately pretty close to therapeutic doses, that may cause serious arrhythmia, and even heart attacks. Don't ever try to self-medicate with chloroquine.
To those who aren't aware of it, there was a recently completed (small) clinical study of hydroxychloroquine (and in some cases HCQ plus z-pack) just completed in France. The results are here: https://www.mediterranee-infection.com/wp-content/uploads/20... They're miraculous. This is a well-studied, mass-produced drug which has been around for 70 years and appears to be highly effective at treating this virus.
To those who aren't aware of it, the reason someone thought to try this is that this type of drug has shown intermittent promise in treating viral infections for years. But to date it has never really panned out in clinical trials. (If it had, we would all be taking chloroquine every time we caught a serious virus like the flu). Doesn't mean it can't be beneficial this time for this particular virus; we should always…
No, the actual reason is that Chinese doctors noted a statistical abberation in their coronavirus patients: none of the patients had lupus. They called around and confirmed it, none of the hospitals had any patients with lupus. And the standard chinese treatment for lupus is... chloroquine.
https://www.jqknews.com/news/388543-The_novel_coronavirus_pn...
Chloroquine has proceeded from statistical anomaly, to successful case studies, to successful non-random trials, and now is in random trials. I'm not a doctor but I think there's a pretty good chance it'll be effective.
Yes, it is not officially approved yet, but it is being deployed in China, Korea, and other countries off-label. Right now there are no other options. I'd take chloroquine over nothing. Overall it is not pleasant but there are few dangerous side effects in the short term (retinopathy is a possible side effect if duration of treatment is on the order of months to years). It is an over-the-counter medication in a lot of the world, it is behind the counter in a lot of other places (including the UK).
(the US just likes making sure doctors get paid even if a medication is quite safe. There are a lot of medications like oral contraceptives that are routinely done over-the-counter in most other places that we insist are so wildly dangerous you couldn't begin and discontinue them if you noticed side effects. And on the flip side, there's lots of drugs like tylenol that we know to be horribly unsafe and yet they remain OTC anyway, or even in "abuse resistant" combination products. Chloroquine is a pretty standard antimalarial and places that have malaria don't think it's a big enough deal that you need a doctor to get it.)
Given the lack of other options, given the known nature of the drug, if I was in a hospital dying of COVID would I want to give it a shot? Yes. Same principle as experimental cancer drugs. Some chance is better than no chance.
Anyone we can treat with pharmaceutical interventions instead of ventilators frees up those ventilators for more critical patients. Even if they still have to remain under some degree of medical supervision, it frees up ICU beds.
Warning: chloroquine has strong side-effects, and very high toxicity, unfortunately pretty close to therapeutic doses, that may cause serious arrhythmia, and even heart attacks. Don't ever try to self-medicate with chloroquine.
WARNING: the above is almost certainly wrong. Citation should be provided. The preponderance of the evidence suggests that it's a well-understood drug that has been around for decades, used by 10s of millions for not only malaria but also arthritis. In fact it is safe enough that it is available over the counter in some countries. [1] 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chloroquine
Warning: chloroquine has strong side-effects, and very high toxicity, unfortunately pretty close to therapeutic doses, that may cause serious arrhythmia, and even heart attacks. Don't ever try to self-medicate with chloroquine.
WARNING: the above is almost certainly wrong. Citation should be provided. The preponderance of the evidence suggests that it's a well-understood drug that has been around for decades, used by 10s of millions for not only malaria but also arthritis. In fact it is safe enough that it is available over the counter in some countries. [1] 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chloroquine
Please read what you're posting, at least.
What will the effect of drinking quinine tonic be as a preventative measure?
Quinine is super bitter, it doesn't take much for flavor use, and the stuff on the shelf is nowhere near the strength that would have been given for brits in tropical posts during those days.
Warning: chloroquine has strong side-effects, and very high toxicity, unfortunately pretty close to therapeutic doses, that may cause serious arrhythmia, and even heart attacks. Don't ever try to self-medicate with chloroquine.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22628302 Derek lowe reviews the evidence here and has far more of a positive take on it than i'd expected. (as in , "not obvious nonsense!")
No, he doesn't. Derek has a favourable opinion of favipiravir and in the footnote he calls the French trial "messy". That's very polite, considering the shape of the data.
check my post history if you like, i’m skeptical too.
I wonder if there is a point where literally everyone just gets a dose of chloroquine. My understanding is it stops the virus replicating and so is almost a preventative rather than a treatment.
For example, it enhances influenza: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25715935
I wonder if there is a point where literally everyone just gets a dose of chloroquine. My understanding is it stops the virus replicating and so is almost a preventative rather than a treatment.
It's way too nasty a drug IME. The side effects can be really unpleasant, not even considering the possible long term effects. But it would make sense for medical staff and other people in high risk occupations.
Warning: chloroquine has strong side-effects, and very high toxicity, unfortunately pretty close to therapeutic doses, that may cause serious arrhythmia, and even heart attacks. Don't ever try to self-medicate with chloroquine.
Does hydroxycholoquinine have the same side effect profile as choloquinine