Currently there are no drugs approved to treat the novel coronavirus, but doctors are facing pressure from patients demanding for the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine that they've heard endorsed by President Trump
Doctors and pharmacists from more than half a dozen large healthcare systems in New York, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Ohio, Washington and California told Reuters they are routinely using hydroxychloroquine on patients hospitalized with COVID-19. At the same time, several said they have seen no evidence that the drug, used for years to treat malaria and autoimmune disorders, has any effect on the virus.
Potential side effects of hydroxychloroquine include vision loss and heart problems. But doctors interviewed by Reuters say they are comfortable prescribing the drug for a short course of several days for coronavirus patients because the risks are relatively low and the therapies are inexpensive and generally available.
Since early March, the 44-year-old New Yorker has chronicled his near-fatal infection with coronavirus in social media posts followed by thousands of people. Lat’s case has resonated with a U.S. audience that has begun to recognize the risk that coronavirus poses not only to elderly patients with serious medical conditions, but also to generally healthy younger adults.
Despite such encouraging reports, hard evidence that any of the therapies now under study will work is weeks and possibly months way. In late March, the Department of Health and Human Services accepted donations of millions of doses of the drugs from manufacturers Novartis AG and Bayer AG. “President Trump is taking every possible step to protect Americans from the coronavirus and provide them with hope,” HHS Secretary Alex Azar said in announcing delivery of the doses to the U.S. Strategic National Stockpile, which houses medical and other supplies needed to address pandemics or biological threats.
“We have not taken a stance, nor are we, on whether doctors should prescribe it,” FDA Commissioner Dr Stephen Hahn told Fox News last week. “We’re providing facts and information about the risks and benefits, but that really is and should be a doctor-patient decision.” Several U.S. states and health insurers are taking steps to limit prescriptions, while Trump issued an executive order on March 23 to keep Americans from hoarding or price gouging.While the antimalarial approach, and its vocal advocates, are dominating headlines, doctors are still hopeful that one or more of the other therapies being tested will begin to show success.
Others have focused on the potential of more advanced biologic medicines to quell the processes that put the body’s immune system into overdrive in severe COVID-19 cases.
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