Experts at UTHealth successfully treat severe case of COVID-19 in 3-week-old infant (hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin)

In one of the first reported cases of its kind, a 3-week-old infant in critical condition recovered from COVID-19 due to rapid recognition and treatment by physicians from McGovern Medical School at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth).

"Our team was called to admit the patient in PICU, and when we saw the X-ray, we were suspicious immediately that it could be the coronavirus. We took early precautions to protect our team and avoid the spread to health care providers," Coronado said. "We thought the child was sicker than the normal child we see. On top of what appeared to be COVID-19, the child also tested positive for the virus that causes the common cold."

The infant was transferred to a negative-pressure room in the PICU, and was intubated and placed on a mechanical ventilator for five days. While standard PICU protocol calls for noninvasive mechanical ventilation, doctors chose to intubate because the patient was in severe respiratory failure and COVID-19 was suspected. Physicians also placed the infant on a five-day course of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin.

Why are there so many reports of HCQ and Z-pak and zinc sulfate working and yet Doctors keep pooh-poohing it because it hasn't been approved by the bureaucratic long term studies for COVID-19? I don't know if zinc was included, but I ask how many so-called anecdotal cures have to be valid before it's a common treatment? My gawd, a 3 week infant was cured.

Sheesh, it's a known fact that Doctors are prescribing it to themselves as a prophylactic. What do all those Doctors know that Fauci doesn't? Yes, it doesn't always work for the elderly on ventilators who have underlying conditions, but there are now hundreds of patients who have completely recovered once administered before reaching that stage.

Screw the FDA, HIH, and CDC ... let the Doctors prescribe at will. Where are you Pres. Trump? Maybe you are relying too much on Fauci and Birx. I also know it is a State decision to allow Doctors to prescribe, but you have the bully pulpit have been correct from day one. Stop with the testing rhetoric and put some pressure on the medical community and the States.

Original NEJM paper available here:

Late-Onset Neonatal Sepsis in a Patient with Covid-19, April 22, 2020 by:
Alvaro Coronado Munoz, M.D.
Upulie Nawaratne, M.D.
David McMann, M.D.
Misti Ellsworth, M.D.
Jon Meliones, M.D.
Konstantinos Boukas, M.D.
University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, TX
Upon admission to Pediatric ICU, hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin were initiated for presumed Covid-19.
On day 2 after admission, the hypotension resolved. A pneumothorax that developed on the right side (Figure 1C) was successfully treated by tube thoracostomy. The patient was extubated on day 5 and was transferred out of the PICU. The results of reverse-transcriptase–polymerase-chain-reaction testing to detect SARS-CoV-2 on admission were positive on day 7; he completed the 5-day course of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin. The patient was discharged on day 9 without supplemental oxygen. One of eight household contacts of the patient, a 49-year-old woman, was symptomatic; however, none of the contacts were tested for SARS-CoV-2.
Although children are less likely than adults to have severe Covid-19, this case illustrates that it can occur and can be successfully managed with standard PICU protocols. The one exception to the standard protocol was that noninvasive mechanical ventilation was not attempted, since Covid-19 was suspected.

Interesting that the the conclusion is that COVID-19 can be "successfully managed with standard PICU protocols." Does that mean HCQ + azithromycin is the standard protocol?

The "Supplementary Appendix" shows the values of the patient's lab results at admission and every 24 hours later through Day 5.

Besides no Zinc in the treatment, they apparently also did not use any anticoagulants.

It's curious that the Appendix lists all the details of the lab panels, but they don't show the details of the drugs administered, dosages, timing, etc.

HCQ + Z-Pak have to be started very early in the progression of the disease to be most effective.

There is indeed abundant empirical evidence that it does work and more such evidence disclosed every day. Why Dr. Paul Marik's "EVMS CRITICAL CARE COVID-19 MANAGEMENT PROTOCOL" has not been recommended or endorsed is a mystery.

What's really interesting is that the theoretical underpinning of why quinine works against the malarial parasite is still not conclusive after 60 years. Wiki: "As with other quinoline antimalarial drugs, the antimalarial mechanism of action of quinine has not been fully resolved. The most accepted model is based on hydrochloroquinine and involves the inhibition of hemozoin biocrystallization, which facilitates the aggregation of cytotoxic heme. Free cytotoxic heme accumulates in the parasites, causing death."

We just know it works and it is used widely and with great effect.

The child was never tested for the virus...it was ASSUMED!

That is not correct. See Post #6: "The results of reverse-transcriptase–polymerase-chain-reaction testing to detect SARS-CoV-2 on admission were positive on day 7;"

Wiki-->Using real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (rRT-PCR)[8] the test can be done on respiratory samples obtained by various methods, including a nasopharyngeal swab or sputum sample. Results are generally available within a few hours to 2 days. The RT-PCR test performed with throat swabs is only reliable in the first week of the disease. Later on the virus can disappear in the throat while it continues to multiply in the lungs. For infected people tested in the second week, alternatively sample material can then be taken from the deep airways by suction catheter, or coughed up material (sputum) can be used.

The RT-PCR test determines is there is an active infection. It's hard to figure out what happened, though, based on the writing. Did they draw blood and do the COVID test on day 7 after admission?

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