The use of hydroxychloroquine to treat coronavirus patients has become highly politicised in the U.S. but it is used widely in India, a top White House official has said, asserting latest research which showed that the anti-malarial drug is highly effective in the early stages of Covid-19.
It's the politicisation of this medicine by the mainstream media and portions of the medical community that somehow made this a battle between President (Donald) Trump and them and created this undue fear and hysteria over a drug, a medicine that has been used for over 60 years relatively safely and is regularly prescribed to pregnant women if they are going to a malaria zone, White House Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy Director Peter Navarro told reporters.
The idea that this is a dangerous drug is just silly, but if you ask the American people based on the media's coverage of it, that is kind of the state of play right now, he said.
Navarro said a day earlier four doctors at the Detroit Hospital System filed a request for emergency use authorisation for hydroxychloroquine. The request was for three things.
One, for early treatment use in a hospital setting. Number two, treatment between a doctor and his patient in an outpatient setting. Three, not just as a therapeutic but also as a possible prophylaxis for preventative use, he said.
This request to the FDA comes on the heels of the publication of their study in the Journal of Infectious Diseases last week that showed an astonishing 50 percent reduction in the mortality rate for patients taking hydroxychloroquine, Navarro said.
Source: PTI
