COVID-19 Cure: Hydroxychloroquine and Chloroquine ?

COVID-19 or Coronavirus

The COVID-19 or Coronavirus was first identified in the year 2019 in Wuhan (China). It is an infectious disease and similar to SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) viruses. The common symptoms are cough, fever and shortness of breath, which leads to pneumonia and multi-organ failure in severe cases.

The virus is transmitted or spread when someone comes in direct contact with another person who is already infected. The virus mainly transmits through cough or sneeze of infected person, or touching the previously contaminated surfaces and then through their tongue, nose, eyes or face.

World Health Organization (WHO) has officially declared COVID-19 or Coronavirus as pandemic on 11th March, 2020. Till today, 28th March of 2020, over 150 countries has an infection record of approx 6,20,000 people, among which more than 1,38,000 were successfully recovered, but unfortunately more than 28,500 died.

Treatment of COVID-19 or Coronavirus

COVID-19 has no approved medications till now by WHO. Antibiotics are also proved to be ineffective as Coronavirus is not something bacterial but its viral infection. In January 2020, the research just got started to bring out potentials from medical science, although many medicines are being used now for trials. Officials are claiming that the precised medicine or vaccine will take the whole year, 2020, to develop and the brighter part might be seen in 2021.

The exact medications are yet to come, and the doctors are experimenting giving drugs developed to treat Ebola, Malaria, Auto-immune diseases, HIV, etc. But recently a famous world leader declared an anti-malarial drug a “game changer” and it started to show its effect immediately as a man died of cardiac arrest and his wife was hospitalized in critical condition, after they decided to self-medicate themselves with a form of chloroquine. They took chloroquine phosphate which is actually being used to clean aquariums, rather not to medicate humans.

Besides, China has approved an antiviral drug to treat symptoms of Coronavirus, which was initially developed for nose and throat inflammation. Moreover, a drug called APN01 will be examined in China to fight against Coronavirus after its trial begins clinically.

Hydroxychloroquine and Chloroquine

Both the Hydroxychloroquine and Chloroquine drugs are approved by FDA (Food and Drug Administration, USA) and are mainly used to treat malaria; not to mention the form is being used from the 1930’s decade. Not only malaria, but they are also used to treat Rheumatoid Arthritis and Lupus. Both these diseases are caused due to auto-immune system and mainly lead to pain in joints, following with blood cells, brain, kidneys, heart, lungs and skin diseases. These drugs came into the spotlight after a big figure spoke about it during a briefing.

Can Chloroquine Treat COVID-19?

The fact is still unproven that Chloroquine or Hydroxychloroquine can treat or work against Coronavirus. Chloroquine is an anti-malarial drug used for parasitic infections where CODID-19 is a viral infection, and the question still remains unanswered whether the different form of infections can be treated with the same drug or not.

Chloroquine can prevent the virus from infecting because this drug has the ability to change the acidity at the surface of the cell and that is why it is suggested in many cases. Chloroquine has the possibilities in helping the immune system get activated and an experimental case study showed that Hydroxychloroquine and an anti-bacterial drug both jointly helped in a better way to stop spreading the infection in group of patients rather than providing only Hydroxychloroquine without the anti-bacterial drug.

According to the people related to medicine and it’s development, it is strictly prohibited to use Chloroquine without consulting a doctor. The form, Chloroquine, is not yet proven to be safe and effective, till date, for the COVID-19. The use is yet to be appropriately evaluated in controlled studies because they might have serious side effects and in some cases can cause death.

Side Effects of Hydroxychloroquine and Chloroquine