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Global COVID-19 trial of hydroxychloroquine, which Trump takes, begins


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Global COVID-19 trial of hydroxychloroquine, which Trump takes, begins

By Kylie MacLellan and Kay Johnson

 

2020-05-21T152917Z_1_LYNXMPEG4K1GD_RTROPTP_4_HEALTH-CORONAVIRUS-BRITAIN-HYDROXYCHLOROQUINE.JPG

FILE PHOTO: A nurse shows a Hydroxychloroquine pill, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, at Nossa Senhora da Conceicao hospital in Porto Alegre, Brazil, April 23, 2020. REUTERS/Diego Vara/File Photo

 

LONDON/BANGKOK (Reuters) - Healthcare workers in Britain and Thailand have started taking part in a trial to determine whether two anti-malarial drugs can prevent COVID-19, including one that U.S. President Donald Trump says he has been taking.

 

The study, involving more than 40,000 healthcare workers across Europe, Africa, Asia and South America, seeks to determine whether chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine could play a role in the fight against the novel coronavirus.

 

Demand for hydroxychloroquine surged after Trump touted it in early April. He said this week he was now taking it as a preventive medicine against the virus despite medical warnings about its use.

 

The lead investigators in Thailand and Britain said their 'COPCOV' trial, in the works for several months, would cut through the heated and unhelpful debate.

 

"We still do not know whether anything is beneficial in COVID-19," the University of Oxford's Professor Nicholas White, the study's co-principal investigator, told Reuters.

 

"The only way we can find out if things are beneficial overall is to do large, well-conducted clinical trials," said White, who is based at the Mahidol Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit (MORU) in Bangkok. "These are extremely well-established drugs."

 

The COPCOV team said laboratory evidence showed the anti-malarial drugs might be effective in preventing or treating COVID-19 but there was no conclusive proof. Accord Healthcare has donated the hydroxychloroquine and matched placebo.

 

Medics who have tested positive will not be able to take part. More details can be found here: https://bit.ly/3g7GeyN

 

Trump said on May 18 that he had been taking hydroxychloroquine and many frontline medical workers were too, although the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has issued a warning about its use.

 

"I'm taking it -- hydroxychloroquine," Trump said. "I've been taking it for the last week and a half. A pill every day."

 

Professor Martin Llewelyn, the lead UK investigator, said many health workers were relying on social distancing and personal protective equipment but the measures were not perfect.

 

"Anything that can be done to reduce that risk further would be an enormous break through," he told Reuters.

 

(Writing by Kate Holton; Editing by Guy Faulconbridge and Catherine Evans)

 

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-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-05-22
 
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I notice that Elon Musk sent an unusual tweet, even from him saying 'Take the red pill'

 

Looks like the tablets are red, unlike the anti malarial version, perhaps to denote a different dosage.

 

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Health care workers in Thailand are part of this trial?? Seriously why on earth would you try to take a randomized study in Thailand when the powers that be throw numbers out that state virtually no one has the virus here??

 

Complete waste of resources which instead should be used in the other countries that do have plenty of active cases ongoing

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2 hours ago, ukrules said:

I notice that Elon Musk sent an unusual tweet, even from him saying 'Take the red pill'

 

Looks like the tablets are red, unlike the anti malarial version, perhaps to denote a different dosage.

 

maybe he meant something else

 

The red pill and blue pill is a meme representing a choice between taking either a "red pill" that reveals an unpleasant truth, or taking a "blue pill" to remain in blissful ignorance. The terms are directly derived from a scene in the 1999 film The Matrix.

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20 minutes ago, Bkk Brian said:

Health care workers in Thailand are part of this trial?? Seriously why on earth would you try to take a randomized study in Thailand when the powers that be throw numbers out that state virtually no one has the virus here??

 

Complete waste of resources which instead should be used in the other countries that do have plenty of active cases ongoing

I agree with you.

Thailand has 80 current cases and 98% recovery rate. What possible use could a trial here be?

How many of those current cases are health care workers?

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Hydroxychloroqin Ind drugs in its class cause QT prolongation in a proportion of patients. QT prolongation is a disturbance in heart rhythm and in itself is rarely much of a problem.

The problem is that QT prolongation in a certain number of patients leads to TdS (Torsades de Pointe) which is an arrhythmia linked to sudden death.

The other issue is deterioration of eyesight. My mother-in-law took chloroquine for several years for RA, but she had her eyes checked every 6 months.

Drugs used for prophylaxis have to be exceptionally safe. Chloroquin or HCQ are not exceptionally safe drugs and are inappropriate for prophylaxis in a disease which if caught by a patient has a very low fatality rate. Any prophylaxis should be reserved for patients in nursing homes.

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1 hour ago, Pedrogaz said:

Hydroxychloroqin Ind drugs in its class cause QT prolongation in a proportion of patients. QT prolongation is a disturbance in heart rhythm and in itself is rarely much of a problem.

The problem is that QT prolongation in a certain number of patients leads to TdS (Torsades de Pointe) which is an arrhythmia linked to sudden death.

The other issue is deterioration of eyesight. My mother-in-law took chloroquine for several years for RA, but she had her eyes checked every 6 months.

Drugs used for prophylaxis have to be exceptionally safe. Chloroquin or HCQ are not exceptionally safe drugs and are inappropriate for prophylaxis in a disease which if caught by a patient has a very low fatality rate. Any prophylaxis should be reserved for patients in nursing homes.

I noticed that Trump stated that he took daily hydroxochloroquin tablet, one a day. This med is only available in 100 and 200mg, and suggested dose is 2x 200mg daily for Covid-19. So his one tablet a day ain't going to do much..

 

I've been taking hydroxochloroquin 200mg everyday for the past 13 years for RA.. Annual eye tests, but not much else.. Maybe I'll develop an immunity for Covid-19?? ???? ???? Most likely not.. 

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