President Trump says he takes a daily dose of Hydroxychloroquine

Listen to this article

US President Donald Trump has claimed that he takes a daily dosage of hydroxychloroquine as a preventive medication against the coronavirus with the approval of a White House doctor. Point to be noted that his own Food and Drug Administration hasn’t yet approved any medicine to combat or treat Covid-19 following warnings that the drug could trigger lethal heart conditions. The drug has been approved for some clinical trials for coronavirus treatment, but it is unclear how the president has prescribed the medicine for daily use without showing any symptoms. The hydroxychloroquine has been approved by the FDA to treat or prevent malaria and some types of lupus and rheumatoid arthritis. But the drug’s efficacy in coronavirus patients hasn’t been proven.

The FDA earlier warned that clinical trials for the drug to treat Covid-19 should only treat hospitalized patients under close heart monitoring. The agency said that using hydroxychloroquine phosphate and chloroquine phosphate can pose serious risks, including serious heart rhythm problems, low blood sugar, anemia, other blood problems, worsening of seizures, other neurologic issues, and eye damage. It is noteworthy that the FDA issued an emergency use authorization on 28^th March, to allow hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine products in the Strategic National Stockpile to be distributed and used for certain hospitalized coronavirus patients. The National Institutes of Health started clinical trials to treat Covid-19 patients last week, by using a combination of hydroxychloroquine and the antibiotic azithromycin.

The FDA has also warned Americans against using chloroquine phosphate (a common aquarium cleaner) which is not the same as medicinal chloroquine phosphate. At least one person in the US has died after ingesting the chemical. The White House top disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci issued a statement and said, “Repurposing existing drugs is an attractive option because these medications have undergone extensive testing and allowed them to move quickly into clinical trials and accelerating their potential approval for Covid-19 treatment. Although there is anecdotal evidence that hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin may benefit people with Covid-19. We need solid data from a large randomized, controlled clinical trial to determine whether this experimental treatment is safe”.