Posted on 04/29/2020 5:22:05 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Costa Rica joins a growing list of several countries who are using hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for patients diagnosed with the Covid-19 virus.
Bahrain was one of the first countries in the world to administer Hydroxychloroquine to treat active coronavirus cases, the Chairman of the Supreme Council of Health, Head of the National Taskforce for Combating the coronavirus, Sheikh Mohamed bin Abdullah Al Khalifa said.
The Kingdom first used the drug on 26 February, following the registration of its first case on 24 February.
India's health ministry has recommended the use of hydroxychloroquine as a preventative treatment for healthcare workers, as well as households in contact with confirmed cases if they have a prescription from a doctor.
In Brazil, a clinical trial of hydroxychloroquine led by the Albert Einstein Hospital in Sao Paulo in conjunction with other Brazilian hospitals is testing the effectiveness of the drug in combination with the antibiotic azithromycin on patients with COVID-19.
Doctors in Italy have finally began widely prescribing hydroxychloroquine in certain combinations in Rome and the wider region of Lazio with a population of around six million. "Every single person with Covid-19 that has early signs, like a cough or a fever for example, is now being treated with the anti-malaria drug." according to Dr. Pier Luigi Bartoletti, Deputy National Secretary of the Italian Federation of General Practitioners.
“In Costa Rica, we have been using hydroxychloroquine since we had a teleconference meeting with personnel from China, personnel from Shanghai and Wuhan,” said Mario Ruíz, Medical Manager of the Costa Rican Social Security System (CCSS, or Caja).
“They were the ones who attended the emergency that arose in China, and hydroxychloroquine has its specifications and specific doses. Thanks to this help provided by the Chinese scientific community and a therapeutic care manual, we are using these treatments at the established doses.”
Costa Rica received a donation of hydroxychloroquine from Novartis subsidiary Sandoz, a Swiss pharmaceutical company. At the time, CCSS said it would use the drug to treat patients and collect clinical data on its efficacy.
In the United States and elsewhere, clinical trials are testing the drug — more commonly prescribed to prevent malaria — in patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 infection, according to the CDC.
The Costa Rican health system has not released data comparing the outcomes of patients treated with hydroxychloroquine to other methods, but it suggested positive results.
“The drug has proven to be successful in patients who have been treated currently,” Ruíz has confirmed.
He also stated: “Hydroxychloroquine has specific specifications and doses. Thanks to the help that Chinese scientists gave us and a manual of therapeutic care, we are using this treatment at the established doses.”
The Minister of Health indicated that this drug “is the most widely used treatment to treat patients with malaria and is widely used throughout the world. In this sense, the complications that are seen are minimal if the doses that are already indicated are respected”.
While the US media consistently discredits the use of hydroxychloroquine as a possible treatment for patients showing symptoms of Covid-19, physicians are taking note of a study published by Dr Didier Raoult where 1061 patients were treated. In that study the authors concluded, “the HCQ-AZ combination, when started immediately after diagnosis, is a safe and efficient treatment for COVID-19, with a mortality rate of 0.5%, in elderly patients. It avoids worsening and clears virus persistence and contagiosity in most cases.”
Since 2008, Dr. Raoult has served as the director of URMITE (Research Unit in Infectious and Tropical Emergent Diseases), collaborating with CNRS (National Center for the Scientific Research), IRD (Research for the Development Institute), INSERM (National Institute of Health and Medical Research) and Aix Marseille University. His laboratory employs more than 200 people, including nearly 100 active researchers who publish between 250 and 350 papers per year and have produced over 50 patents. In other words, he is a well known expert in infectious diseases.
While the world awaits a vaccine, it is critical that medical practioners continue to try to find a treatment to alleviate the suffering of those in need of a cure now.
It's nice to know the government of Costa Rica puts the health and welfare of its residents above politics and is willing to work to lead in the fight against this disease, rather than follow. We hope that applied science can help win this fight, along with other measures like social distancing, cleanliness and consideration for our friends and families and neighbors. Anything that keep us on the road to recovery.
Our Overlords will not approve.
Dr. Fauci does not approve...
Why aren’t they using Remdesivir?
Probably can’t afford it and HCQ already has a better track record.
Is it Fauci, WHO, and/or the CDC that are stating hydroxychloroquine is not successful in treating COVID-19 patients? My wife was saying the so-called study used hydroxychloroquine on its own and not in combination with zinc/Z-pack. Is she right?
RE: Remdesivir
Because only Gilead is the maker and it and they don’t know:
1. How much it costs
2. Whether at this point in time, Gilead can scale up their production tomeet the needs if millions.
China-only source materials. I hope they fail and fail spectacularly.
Looks like Hydroxychloroquine is saving a lot of lives in the USA and the world. We have a treatment now it is time to reopen.
But it’s not a dem/msm approved treatment
lol “But it’s not a dem/msm approved treatment”
They are for the drug that cost more money. Follow the money they have stock invested.
Imagine that. They aren’t waiting until they are damned near dead to use it.
The drug will prove itself over time. Meanwhile, we are wrecking our economy and our quality of life due to unwarranted hysteria over this disease.
I guess we’re going to have to punish Costa Rica.
Yes and they gave it way too late. It was rigged to fail.
Stupid is as stupid does but this was malicious stupid.
The Dims want the economy to fail...at least until November.
>>Bahrain was one of the first countries in the world to administer Hydroxychloroquine to treat active coronavirus cases...
The Kingdom first used the drug on 26 February, following the registration of its first case on 24 February.<<
And Bahrain has had excellent results. Worldometer shows Bahrain having only 5 deaths per 1mm population despite having a relatively high 1,717 cases per 1mm. In total they’ve had only 8 deaths out of 2,921 cases and only one case is currently shown as in serious condition. About half have already recovered.
Compare that to the U.S. which has 186 deaths per 1mm while only about twice the cases per 1mm, at 3,216 cases per 1mm.
That’s an additional 178 cases per 1mm but the U.S. has 320 mm people, so we’re talking the potential here for 320 x 178 = 56,960 unnecessary deaths in this country, conceivably due to TDS. Compare that to the present total of 61,669 deaths in the U.S.
today.
In addition, the U.S. has 18,671 cases considered serious or critical, compared to Bahrain’s single case in that category. If the U.S. had the same result there would be less than 300 people in that category.—three hundred versus over 18 thousand.
Correction: The beginning of the next to the last paragraph should state that it’s an additional 178 deaths per 1mm, not cases.
Analysts at RBC Capital Markets expect Gilead would price the drug at around $900 to $1,000 or lower per course, a cost above oral flu drugs but below new intravenous antibiotics.
A LOT more
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