CHLOROQUINE
Good Article :
It's also been picked up by US president Donald Trump, who promoted it as a cure and said it would be fast-tracked to be available to Americans.
But is it the cure?
Let's not get ahead of ourselves. This is very early days to start talking about anything as a cure and it needs a lot more testing.
Some researchers have said chloroquine shows great promise as a treatment, though scientists have agreed that more trials are needed to determine if the drug is really effective and safe.
Professor Raoult is a respected expert in his field, but this is just the beginning of the process.
Although chloroquine itself has already been tested extensively and cleared for market use, no-one really knows what its effects will be on coronavirus, whether there will be any side effects and whether any other drugs could prove to be just as effective.
Early indications from Strasbourg hospital, which is involved in the testing, are that some of the patients in a serious condition did not deteriorate to the point where intensive care was needed.
However as the trials have gone on,
several dozen patients have reported undesirable side effects, and there seems to be an associated risk of arrhythmia, which can lead to heart attacks.
https://www.thelocal.fr/20200324/ch...french-scientists-say-could-treat-coronavirus
https://www.thelocal.fr/20200324/ch...french-scientists-say-could-treat-coronavirus
From the Guardian
What does the evidence show?
The French study followed work by Chinese researchers which suggested that hydroxychloroquine can slow infections from Sars-CoV-2, the virus behind Covid-19, by blocking it from entering cells in the body. But more recent, albeit small-scale, research from China has shown that patients who were treated with the drugs fought off coronavirus no more quickly than those who didn’t get it. Indeed, one patient given hydroxychloroquine severely worsened in condition while four patients on the medicine developed signs of liver damage and experienced diarrhea.
Regardless of these findings, any drug being used for a certain purpose before full clinical trials are completed is, by definition, untested and unproven. It’s too early to say if hydroxychloroquine can have a major benefit or not.
The European Medicines Agency, an agency of the EU, has said hydroxychloroquine should not be taken by coronavirus patients except for clinical trials or emergency use programs.
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020/apr/06/coronavirus-cure-fact-check-hydroxychloroquine-trump