CINCINNATI (WKRC) – The president announced this week he made a decision with his doctor to take the anti-malaria medication still in trials called hydroxychloroquine.
“A lot of good things have come out about the hydroxychloroquine,” said President Donald Trump. “A lot of good things have come out and you’d be surprised at how many people are taking it, especially the frontline workers, before you catch it.”
The drug is still in trials to see if it may help people recover quicker from the virus.
“Looks like it does have some activity against the virus,” said Dr. Stephen Blatt, an infection control specialist at TriHealth. “It shuts the virus’ ability to reproduce itself down.”
“My reading of the data is hydroxychloroquine is not effective,” said Dr. Hector Wong, a critical care medicine specialist at Cincinnati’s Children’s Hospital.
Of course, this raises the question: Is there anything that will keep you from catching the virus, and is there anything that will keep you from developing complications from it?
“A lot, so I think is good hygiene, social distancing, washing your hands,” said Dr. Wong.
Dr. Wong says limiting exposure is the only way to not catch it.
As for preventing complications, Dr. Blatt says there’s nothing that’s proven yet.
There are now several things in trials to lower your risk. They’re not recommended for the prevention of COVID-19. They include hydroxychloroquine, the antiviral medication remdesivir and the newest trial announced this week of an inhaled drug from Pulmotect referred to as PUL-042. It’s being studied in healthy people to see if it can stop COVID-19 from taking hold in the lungs.
“That way, we put nobody at risk and get an idea if this medication can truly prevent patients from getting worse, and we can even perhaps provide treatment at home at some point,” said Dr. Chaitanya Mandapakala with St. Elizabeth Healthcare.
