NPR.org
Concern is mounting after a doctor at a Texas nursing home started giving the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine to dozens of elderly patients diagnosed with COVID-19 and tracking the outcomes in what he’s calling an “observational study.”
Use of the drug to treat coronavirus infections has set up a heated debate between the Trump administration and leading health experts over its efficacy against COVID-19.
President Trump has been an enthusiastic champion of hydroxychloroquine, calling it a “game-changer.” But some of the nation’s most respected health officials have said there is insufficient evidence showing that the 80-year-old drug, which is typically used to stave off malaria or treat lupus and rheumatoid arthritis, is a viable treatment in battling the new virus.
The Food and Drug Administration has not approved the drug for the treatment of COVID-19. The U.S. National Institutes of Health is currently tracking clinical trials of the drug. Additionally, the University of Minnesota is undertaking a trial and Columbia University is as well. Results are not expected for weeks or months.
The controversial decision to administer hydroxychloroquine at The Resort at Texas City over the last few days was made by Robin Armstrong, a physician and medical director of the nursing home.
“It’s actually going well. People are getting better,” Armstrong told NPR, adding that after just a handful of days, some of the 39 patients on the medication are showing signs of improvement.
But scientists argue that relying on observational, uncontrolled evidence can be misleading and that the only way to truly prove a drug is working is through carefully controlled clinical trials. And, contrary to Armstrong’s assertion that hydroxychloroquine “has virtually no side effects,” it is known to have serious negative health impacts. That is why so many in the medical community worry about prescribing it without such proof.
Among them is Katherine Seley-Radtke, who is a medicinal chemist at The University of Maryland, Baltimore County. She specializes in antiviral drug research, including coronaviruses.
“This is really disconcerting,” Seley-Radtke told NPR.
Armstrong admits it is difficult to quantify how much of his elderly patients’ improvement is due to the malaria drug or how they would have fared without it. Nor can he explain why other patients are not responding to the tablet doses, though he notes many are only halfway through the five-day cycle.
“To be clear, no one is worse than when they started,” he said emphatically. “From my perspective, it’s irresponsible to sit back and do nothing. The alternative would have been much much worse.”
In total, 87 people at The Resort tested positive â 56 of 135 residents as well as 31 staffers. One patient has since died.
“We know how it happened,” Armstrong said, explaining that after one staffer tested positive for COVID-19, Galveston County officials tested all other people at the facility on April 2. What they uncovered was one of the largest outbreaks in the Houston region.
“One staffer spread it to other staffers … and each of them could work with 20 to 30 patients a day,” Armstrong said.
Armstrong said he was alarmed by the test results last week and immediately began making calls to track down a source for the medicine, which is in short supply.
That’s when his political connections proved useful.
When was the decision made? What OTHER ALTERNATIVE WAS AVAILABLE – besides herbals and vitamin therapy?
Was it initiated when c- quine APPEARED TO WORK?
NOW, IN RETROSPECTIVE, STUDIES PUBLISHED AND WITHDRAWNED SHOW IT IS USELESS AND DANGEROUS IF GIVEN WITH AZYTHROMYCIN.
No one is noting that Azythromycin is often used for pneumonia and as long as the patient has not already developed a resistance to that drug it should be effective against the bacteria component… THEY just do NOT like the fact that it is stopping “someone’s” plans to kill off the elderly. The youth component is related to the fact that more youth than expected use vapors and those types of smoking devices and the other chemicals in them have been damaging youthful lungs… it is showing up with c-virus exposure.
In NYC in February the minority community experienced a pre-exposure to the c-virus. I saw it, same symptoms but they recovered… Prayer was the difference and it seemed mostly young people affected.
Catching the early cases stopped the spread! This time, it was the older population in NYC and the results were much different. I would imagine many cases of people lost were related to the fact that they could not get health evaluations in time… the virus dehydrates you so quickly — that is the lethal component; without hydration the heart can not continue to pump the thickened blood supply and fails. This is not a medical determination it is a engineering observation and it fits the bill spoken by an Biomedical engineer by degree! Medicine needs to think out of the box on this one for the future moving forward…
They have done a great job with solutions and some attempt for a solution is better than no attempt. I would agree that the quinine component has the possibility for complications but that could be pre-tested with a bottle of quinine water. The other issue about the zinc levels needing verification is also important because often these cases do not get the standard hospital evaluation coming in because of the seriousness of the outbreak. Everyone is doing their best but perhaps a reduced blood and mineral evaluation test could help determine what other support medical treatments are required.