💊 Early reports from China and France suggested that patients with severe symptoms of COVID-19 improved more quickly when given chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine. Some doctors were using a combination of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin with some positive effects.
💊Hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine are primarily used to treat malaria and several inflammatory diseases, including lupus and rheumatoid arthritis. Azithromycin is a commonly prescribed antibiotic for strep throat and bacterial pneumonia. Both drugs are inexpensive and readily available.
💊Hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine have been shown to kill the COVID-19 virus in the laboratory dish. The drugs appear to work through two mechanisms. First, they make it harder for the virus to attach itself to the cell, inhibiting the virus from entering the cell and multiplying within it. Second, if the virus does manage to get inside the cell, the drugs kill it before it can multiply.
💊 Azithromycin is never used for viral infections. However, this antibiotic does have some anti-inflammatory action. There has been speculation, though never proven, that azithromycin may help to dampen an overactive immune response to the COVID-19 infection.
💊 However, the most recent human studies suggest no benefit — and possibly a higher risk of death due to lethal heart rhythm abnormalities — with both hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin used alone. The drugs are especially dangerous when used in combination.
💊Based on these new reports, the FDA now formally recommends against taking chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19 infection unless it is being prescribed in the hospital or as part of a clinical trial. Three days earlier a National Institutes of Health (NIH) panel released a similar strong statement advising against the use of the combination of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin.
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