Posted on 03/19/2020 10:51:44 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
President Donald Trump announced Thursday that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved hydroxychloroquinea drug used to treat malaria, rheumatic diseases and other conditionsfor COVID-19.
As the COVID-19 pandemic spreads around the world, scientists are scrambling to identify treatments that may be effective against the disease. Hydroxychloroquinea common derivative of chloroquineis among those touted as most promising by some experts.
"The nice part is, it's been around for a long time, so we know that if things don't go as planned its not going to kill anybody," Trump told reporters at a press conference. "When you go with a brand new drug, you don't know if that's going to happen. Its shown very very encouraging early results and we're going to be able to make that drug available almost immediately."
But how effective is the drug? This week, researcher Didier Raoult from Aix-Marseille University in France, one of the main proponents for using hydroxychloroquine to treat infection with the novel coronavirusknown as SARS-CoV-2released encouraging results of a preliminary trial involving a total of 36 COVID-19 patients.
According to a draft paperwhich has not yet been accepted for publication in a peer-reviewed scientific journalsix of these patients were asymptomatic, 22 had upper respiratory tract infection symptoms and eight had lower respiratory tract infection symptoms.
Between early and mid-March, Raoult and his team treated 20 of these patients with 600 milligrams of hydroxychloroquine daily in a hospital setting. Depending on their symptoms, an antibiotic known as azithromycin was also added to the treatments. This antibiotic is known to be effective against complications from bacterial lung disease. The 16 remaining patients were not given the drug as a control.
In the study, the scientists observed a "significant" reduction in viral load in the patients treated with hydroxychloroquine,
(Excerpt) Read more at newsweek.com ...
Insurance coveragewho cares?
Generic hydroxychloroquine only costs about $20/30 pack.
Someplace announced yesterday that they will start cranking it out here in the states. Small amounts though, maybe fifty thousand doses a week, but I don’t know what size doses.
I’m trying to figure out how an antibiotic helps with the treatment of a virus. ALthough it could be a added to prevent a bacterial infection while you are trying to fight the viral.
Trump won’t stand for Americans dying while a cure is available nor would the public. It would be pure insanity. And we also have the recently passed Right to Try legislation that would circumvent FDA obstructionism.
We don’t have treatments for most viruses, because most viruses put you home for a day, or give you sniffles, and if they give you something serious, we usually can treat the symptoms and your body will have killed the virus.
We do have a treatment for the flu, because it is somewhat more serious.
We have a treatment for malaria, because it is serious.
We have treatments for things that are significant.
It’s not that we couldn’t come up with an anti-viral treatment for the common cold, it’s that there is virtually no money or value in it.
“Someplace announced yesterday that they will start cranking it out here in the states. Small amounts though, maybe fifty thousand doses a week, but I dont know what size doses.”
Probably Mylan Pharmaceuticals in Morgantown WV.
Curiously it was for a situation that at least at that time, was not on the list of approved uses. Shhhh don't tell the insurance company. Lol!
I grew up real outdoory so to speak. Grew up on a ranch and summers at a lake cabin, water and snow skiing, power boats and sailing. While in Corpus Christi for a project, it was North Padre Island and windsurfing in the bay.
So, I started getting a few red splotches on my face and went to a dermatologist. He did a biopsy then I went in for a follow-up. A functional description was polymorphic light eruption. The doc said he had not seen it since he was a Corpsman in WW2 Pacific duty. It wasn't uncommon for Marines to get this if they slacked off on their daily quinine ration. Oh, and the doc also said that a gin and tonic or two would not give a person enough quinine to make much of a therapeutic difference however much pleasant it might be.
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Trump has been slashing regulations and red tape since he took office. Thanks to Covid-19 he’s now using a chain saw. Time to furlough half of the DC bureaucracy “for their safety” and forget to bring them back after this is over.
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I did the math on this earlier, you would have to drink a gallon and a half of tonic water to hit the medical dose level.
That’ll keep the septic system hydrated!
But word got out about it and now its impossible to get. Hope you have some.
This is a serious problem, but people have been way over-reacting. Maybe something like the Spanish flu, but the knowledge today is infinitely greater.
The economy is now the bigger problem.
Yak... yak... yak... Is anyone taking this medicine, or just talking about it?
Ok, so I watched the video, and my French is assez bon to tell you that he referred to hydroxychloroquine (Plaquenil) as the means to get chloroquine into the patient. Which is what it does. So yes, it appears they administered Plaquenil.
Merci!
I know you’re impatient, but the results of the trials just came out this month. It will be widely available in due time.
I know we want something that works yesterday, but alas, such is life.
Read later.
Oh, well.
It’s commonly used by people with lupus
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