Posted on 04/09/2020 9:31:38 AM PDT by nwrep
As the COVID-19 pandemic widens across the world, there has been a sudden interest in an anti-malarial and anti-inflammatory drug called hydroxychloroquine.
India, which manufactures 70% of the world's supply of hydroxychloroquine, banned its export on March 25. But after Trump called Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi requesting for supplies, the ban was reversed on Tuesday; Trump had threatened “retaliation” if India were to refuse.
India is a dominant manufacturer of hydroxychloroquine because it is an inexpensive drug used to treat malaria, rheumatoid arthritis and lupus. India had about 6.8 million malaria cases (3% of the global total) with nearly 8,000 deaths (2% of the global total) in 2018, according to the World Health Organization’s 2019 malaria report. Chloroquine phosphate is typically used to treat malaria but hydroxychloroquine, which is a less toxic variant, is also used in some cases.
Meanwhile, the Indian government was also working on creating a reserve to meet domestic needs. Both Zydus Cadila and Ipca Labs have been working to meet the requirements of the Indian government.
Sudarshan Jain, secretary general of the Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance, an industry group, says that “the domestic demand is 3 million tablets a month but we have the capacity to go up to 150 million to 200 million tablets a month easily.” He adds that “it is very difficult to predict demand going forward because we do not know how many will be affected.”
It is not a proven treatment for COVID-19 given that there are no regulatory approvals. However, the Indian Council of Medical Research—India’s highest body—has recommended the use of the drug for healthcare workers on a preventive basis as well as for families of COVID -19 patients. But it is available on a prescription basis only.
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
Yet governors have seen fit to declare the school year over.
Seems like they could have waited a little longer.
Kinda weird the companies would ramp up production of a drug with anecdotal success stories/s
Pretty obvious now no matter how times there is a good result
it will never leave the anecdotal category within MSM.
But wait! the stickin, lousy, lying, bastards of the left said this drug was dangerous and thet Trump was wrong to endorse it. In fact they murdered hundreds by preventing use.
“But after Trump called Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi requesting for supplies, the ban was reversed on Tuesday; Trump had threatened “retaliation” if India were to refuse.”
That’s another lie the enemedia was pushing. Does this sound like a relationship based on threats?
@realDonaldTrump
Extraordinary times require even closer cooperation between friends. Thank you India and the Indian people for the decision on HCQ. Will not be forgotten! Thank you Prime Minister @NarendraModi for your strong leadership in helping not just India, but humanity, in this fight!
What are they thinking? According to the lames, one may as well put a .357 to your head as take HCQS. It’s like a death sentence to use this unproven drug. You know, just so PDJT can make money off of it. Do I need an /S ?
Suhweeet!!!
Trump has been advocating HCQ for going on 3 weeks now. Since its first mention we have seen many dramatic recoveries even including a Dem Representative from Michigan just two days ago who was certain that she was about to die from CV without the medication.
Lord God please see that this good news continues in your name and protect our leader Donald Trump. -Amen.
Dr. Oz reported zero lupus patients, users of HCQ, have been reported covid positive.
Here is one. Note that she had other underlying chronic immune disease, was given “an antibiotic for a bladder infection” and was refused admittance at the hospital three times. Never ventilated. Highly educated woman, works at University, so might very well be a vitamin taker.
A Fairbanks woman who spent two weeks battling a debilitating bout with the coronavirus is sharing her story to encourage people to take social distancing seriously. Now recovering, she remains “relieved and terrified.”
Miriam Braun, 38, works as a seismic data analyst at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute. She shared her harrowing story on her personal Facebook page on March 28 and in a later phone interview.
“I’m usually pretty private, but I have seen so many people out,” she said. “I drove by on my way to a doctor’s appointment and there were all these people in the Walmart parking lot. I was just blown away.”
The disease, she said, is serious and scary. She knows because she just spent two weeks fighting it and feels grateful she recovered. But there is no guarantee she won’t get it again.
Braun has several underlying medical conditions, which made her a perfect host for the coronavirus. She suffers from lupus, a long-term autoimmune disease in which the body’s immune system becomes hyperactive and attacks normal, healthy tissue. She also suffers from a common variable immune deficiency and a connective tissue disorder.
So she was a prime candidate to contract the virus when exposed.
The onset
The sickness started with a “horrendous head and neck ache that would not go away,” she wrote. “Then my body started hurting. I figured this was either the flu or a lupus flare, so I’d tough it out.”
But she got so sick that she went to Steese Immediate Care Clinic, where she was given fluids intravenously and tested for the flu before heading home.
Three days later, a relentless fever set in.
“It made my eyeballs hurt,” she wrote. “It made it impossible to do work or do anything else. I went back into urgent care. They gave me more fluids and said I had a bladder infection and treated me with antibiotics.”
A week later, the state Department of Health and Social Services informed her that she had had direct contact with COVID-19 at a local orthopedic clinic. Health officials try to track down every place and every person with whom an infected person has had contact to track the virus and find future victims. She had visited that clinic two days before her symptoms set in.
She was now officially eligible to be tested for COVID-19. The test, she said, was very unpleasant, way more intense than she anticipated.
“It feels like they are scraping your brains,” she said of the swab that plunges deep into the nasal passage.
By the time she got the positive result, she was even sicker. She describes that day as when “things started to get scary.” Not only did her body hurt, she was running out of breath just walking to the mailbox. This progressed, day after day, until getting up or even turning in bed left her short of breath.
“I could no longer eat,” she wrote. “I could barely drink.”
Lungs of ‘glass’
She went to the hospital’s emergency room three times and was treated, but not admitted to the hospital.
“They would only admit you if you were ready to be put on a ventilator,” she wrote. “Though at this point, I wasn’t far from it.”
Fairbanks Memorial Hospital has specific criteria a patient must meet to be admitted.
At one point, Braun returned to urgent care for more fluids and an X-ray, which revealed she had developed pneumonia.
“My lungs were filling up with what they call ‘broken glass,’ because that is what it looks like on the X-ray,” she wrote. “I couldn’t catch my breath. I needed a wheelchair to move anywhere.”
The last time she went to the emergency room, she was not admitted to the hospital because her oxygen levels did not meet the critical low number the hospital set for admission.
She went home.
“That night, my fever broke and I felt the weight — the pressure — physically leave my head and neck,” she wrote. “The next morning I was able to breathe a tiny bit deeper. And the day after that, deeper still. Tonight I can walk to the bathroom without stopping halfway to catch my breath.”
“It’s a miracle,” she said. “It’s crazy how it happened. It was so sudden.”
Advice to her community
Braun is sharing her story as a cautionary tale.
“I have a weak immune system. However, I’m young and have no underlying respiratory issues. You don’t want this and you don’t want your loved ones to get it.”
“Please stay inside,” she wrote. “Do everything you can to slow its spread and buy our community time. To buy each other time.
“If you are wondering if I feared for my life — I did — with real reason. Please do not give us any reason to fear for yours.”
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correct information regarding emergency room use and hospital admission.
Reach columnist/community editor Kris Capps at kcapps@newsminer.com. Follow her on Twitter @FDNMKris.
GI employee, COVID-19 survivor already working from home when exposed to virus
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Dr. Zelenko update! Inspiring! Watch the WHOLE THING! Full of nuggets spread throughout. Also Dr. Karladine Graves with additional info and perspective.
“...we have the capacity to go up to 150 million to 200 million tablets a month easily.”
That’s just 1 manufacturer, who could do much higher than that. As could others. Trump should ask for 3 billion doses. That’s enough for every American who wants to be on it, as a preventative. And then they get to go back to work immediately. Side effects are way overblown, on purpose.
But that’s too hard.
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