Posted on 04/08/2020 9:17:13 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Several hospitals in Sweden have reportedly stopped administering chloroquine to coronavirus patients following reports the drug was causing adverse side effects.
According to the national paper Expressen, hospitals in the Västra Götaland region are no longer offering the antimalarial medication, with side effects reported to include cramps and the loss of peripheral vision.
One of the patients affected was Carl Sydenhag, a 40-year-old Stockholm resident. According to Expressen, Sydenhag was prescribed two tablets of chloroquine to take daily after he was diagnosed with COVID-19 on March 23.
But instead of making him feel better, the medication produced unpleasant side effects. As well as cramps and vision loss, Sydenhag experienced a headache that felt like stepping into "a high voltage plant," he told the paper.
Magnus Gisslén, a professor and chief physician at Sahlgrenska University Hospital infection clinic, told the Gothenburg Post he and others at the clinic administered chloroquine "like everyone else." But as of two weeks ago, Sahlgrenska University Hospital has stopped all use of chloroquine in the treatment of COVID-19.
"There were reports of suspected more serious side effects than we first thought," he told the Gothenburg Post on April 1, 2020. "We cannot rule out serious side effects, especially from the heart, and it is a hard-dosed drug. In addition, we have no strong evidence that chloroquine has an effect on COVID-19."
There are no specific drugs used to treat the novel coronavirus but many have pointed to the anti-malarial drugs chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine as contenders.
The drugs have achieved mixed results in scientific studies. One study suggested it provides no additional benefit to patients who are already receiving care and being treated with antiviral drugs.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsweek.com ...
Correct! You can even say if something does not have side effects, it is not a drug. It's part of the definition.
Treating a patient with an antiviral drug has little effect when already being treated with antiviral drugs.
That;s true and that reaction mechanism can produce lots of things that are not desirable.
Millions of us took chloroquine every week to prevent malaria, and some of us took higher doses to treat malaria (and still do, although the more severe form of Malaria falciparum is resistant).
Visual loss is usually loss of color vision from long term use: loss of peripheral vision? usually glaucoma causes this.
It’s a ruse. Chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine are two separate drugs and they are depending on their readers not knowing the difference.
Which is why the comment re: disingenuous propaganda comparing the side effects of chloroquine with those of hydroxychloroquine and failing to inform those w/o a STEM degree that those two drugs are not, in fact, the same thing.
Probably done by people with stock in Gilead, Moderna, Innovio, etc.
The point is that it's like saying one antibiotic doesn't improve outcome in treating strep when you are taking a second antibiotic.
and in poor countries, anti viral medicines are too expensive o use for thousands of cases.
There are risks with every treatment. I have learned to discuss my options with docs and pharmacists, and learn as much about side-effects as possible.
For instance: Chronic nausea and vomiting was not listed as a common side effect of Neoral. However, while I was on it, I would start vomiting within the hour; usually thirty minutes, right when it got into my bloodstream. I would vomit at irregular intervals for about ten hours, and it would start all over again with my next dose; every 12 hours. That was reported by 1.5% of patients at the time, listed in the documents that came with the drug. I was on and off that drug for about five years, and it was the least awful of any other drug I took for immune suppression.
Point is: Results vary. There are bonuses and downsides to each treatment. Evaluate them. Just because it happens to one patient doesn’t mean it will happen to all, and it is up to the patient to make the decision.
I agree.
For most of my life I assumed the Swedish people were relatively intelligent as a nation. Then came “multi-culti” and everything associated. Now this; giving the wrong drug to dying people and declaring it a failure, for the sake of promoting a political agenda.
Boy was I wrong.
That explains why I couldn't find any.
I read somewhere that it does not react well with metformin, which most type2 diabetics are on. Probably need to stop the metformin for a few days.
Cramps? Seems like an underlying condition with the patient not taking care of their physical health. For instance, dehydration is a common cause of muscle cramps. Cramps are seen in any circumstance that decreases the availability of calcium or magnesium in body fluids, such as taking diuretics, hyperventilation (overbreathing), excessive vomiting, inadequate calcium and/or magnesium in the diet, inadequate calcium absorption due to vitamin D deficiency, and poor function of the parathyroid glands.
Cramps are sometimes noted in addicted individuals during withdrawal from medications and substances that have sedative effects, including alcohol, barbiturates and other sedatives, anti-anxiety agents such as benzodiazepines (for example, diazepam [Valium] and alprazolam [Xanax]), narcotics, and other drugs.
Trust them NOT!
This piece appeared a few days ago in the Swedish rag Expressen. The day before yesterday it was republished in the Daily Mail and now Newsweek. However two things not mentioned in the present piece that was included in the original article:
Mr Sydenhag, “the anecdotal(!!!!) index case” contacted the Swedish Poison Information Central when he noted problems with is peripheral vision, and was informed that he had been overdosed. (IIRC in the original piece it was stated that he was taking 4 pills a day, but no dose was mentioned. Of course the journos never asked I assume...)
Also, Mr S said that he had been cured from his virus infection - probably as a result of the medicine - he just wished they had given him the correct dosage.
Whether the Swedish physicians are (were) prescribing chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine I don’t know, but I don’t trust the journalists to get anything right, so it could be either or.
However, it shold be noted apart from Mr Sydenhag’s more serious side-effects what has been stated by others in the various articles are nausea, rashes and headaches. Most of those symptoms happen also to be symptoms of the disease, and (maybe apart from the rashes) hardly anything to bother with for a five day cure.
Just another thing to note, I had asked around long before this and found that the county of Västra Götaland was probably the area where they were most liberal in using CQ or HCQ. That was also the largest county with the lowest fatality rate. During the last week or so the fatality rate in VG has ticked upwards:
1 April 6 fatalities in 427 cases = 1.4%
8 April 33 fatalities in 730 cases = 4.5%
Could be lots of reasons for this, but a change in treatment procedures is always a contender for a difference in outcome.
PS: BTW the difference in fatality rate between the earlier and the later date is statistically significant at the 95% level.
Dr. Oz had a French doctor, Dr. Didier Raouit involved in a study done by his institute on the use of the hydroxychloroquine combination on 2 thousand infected patients. All but a few made rapid recovery. There was none of side effects which was verified by rheumatologist Dr. Daniel Wallace about whether the medical community should consider giving hydroxychlorquine to people to prevent coronavirus and whether the drug is safe. Wallace has treated thousands of patients with hydroxychlorquine with none of the side effects people are talking about.
There are some tests that can be given that can indicate the patient is not a good candidate for a quinine drug. They’re nowhere near 100% but they can help pin it down before serious side effects can occur.
The symptoms reported by Newsweek are consistent with a quinine allergy. Only a very small percentage of the population will be so affected.
LOL, good catch. The incidents of side effects for hydroxychloroquine should be the same for use in Lupus and RA since the dosing is the same. But the editors at Newsweek are too stupid to go look at the data and too deranged to see their stupidity. Sadly, too man dumbed down American voters will shrink away from HCQ because of stupid articles aimed at smearing Trumps recommendation.
Drugs are administered BECAUSE they have at least one side effect that works against the patient’s symptoms.
It's a freakin' coordinated attack.
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