I wish I could remember what I saw about the dosage being cumulative. If that was the case you could take a course and then do a much smaller maimtanance dose.
Dr. Vladimir Zelenk, who has been treating nearly a thousand Covid-19 patients in his community and preventing all of them from hospitalization, is himself, being a high risk person, taking HCQ plus Zinc as a prophylaxis.
He was interviewed by Jerome Corsi and a Dr. Karladine Graves and his protocol. Dr. Zelenko talks about his prophylactic protocol.
I believe for protective purposes, he recommends 200 mg of HCQ twice daily for 5 straight days and then 220 mg once a week from thereon. Zinc, 220 mg daily.
Watch the interview here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7SDemHGl8U
IIRC, chloroquine was given once weekly in Vietnam to prevent malaria. It has a pretty long biological half-life. But that was to prevent malaria, not a coronavirus.
I think it's available over the counter in India (and many other countries).
Lupus patients are on very long-term HCQ therapy. I remember reading a tweet from a doctor (rheumatologist) saying he wasn’t worried about the HCQ shortage (at that time) because the effects of the HCQ would stay 1-2 months in the lupus patients.
i saw a rheumatic doctor who deals with lupus patients that take the drug- when he was asked about a shortage of hydroxy effecting lupus patients he said he was not to worried as the drug stays active in the body some 2 to 3 months after the person stops taking it.
“I wish I could remember what I saw about the dosage being cumulative.”
it is initially cumulative because the drug actually enters the cells and has a very long half life, and at a certain point after starting the drug the cells are saturated and you reach a steady-state of old drug being metabolized vs new drug being taken ... basically, the first few doses act as a loading dose ...