(Image source from: nbcnews.com)
Numbers have been consistently rising in the United States surrounding the Covid-19 scare and another death from the Phoenix area in Arizona has been reported. The man and his wife self medicated with chloroquine after hearing the advisory from President Trump about the potency of the medication for the coronavirus treatment.
The couple consumed chloroquine phosphate which led to the death of the man and his wife is in an extremely critical condition. The same was reported by the hospital system Banner Health.
In a statement issues by Banner Health, they stated saying that President Donald Trump has reported chloroquine as an effective treatment for the condition of Covid-19 but it is also a component that is used for cleaning the aquarium fish tanks, which is why the efficacy of the chemical is still not ascertained.
Chloroquine is a FDA approved drug that is potent enough for the treatment of malaria, lupus as well as rheumatoid arthritis. But, the same has not gotten the approval from FDA for the treatment of coronavirus.
Banner Health clarified stating that self medicating with such drugs is not advisory, especially when they include inappropriate medication and household products. They should not be consumed for treating the virus.
Dr. Daniel Brooks, Banner Poison and Drug Information Center medical director, in an issued statement to CNN, suggested saying that it is likely for the people to panic surrounding the situation of Covid-19 but there is no purpose in self medicating or picking up medications that could end up proving fatal for the individuals.
Banner Health has clarified that they are still not sure how the couple acquired the chloroquine and which hospital branch they were being treated in. But, the statement clarified that the couple were admitted to the hospital within thirty minutes of ingestion.
In one of his tweets, President Trump touted the combination of HYDROXYCHLOROQUINE & AZITHROMYCIN could be potential game changers in the treatment of the coronavirus.
HYDROXYCHLOROQUINE & AZITHROMYCIN, taken together, have a real chance to be one of the biggest game changers in the history of medicine. The FDA has moved mountains - Thank You! Hopefully they will BOTH (H works better with A, International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents).....
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 21, 2020
While there has been initial studies that have proven the efficacy of this drug in the treatment of coronavirus, there has been no evidence whether or not it is effective in the large scale or long run. Scientists have come forward counteracting the tweet made by President Trump suggesting that the same requires more research.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, in an issued statement stated saying, “I...have said I'm not disagreeing with the fact anecdotally they might work, but my job is to prove definitively from a scientific standpoint that they do work.”
According to the doctors and scientists, they said that the last thing that they want right now is to inundate the emergencies with patients trying to self medicate themselves just because there is some anecdotal evidence of the same working against the virus.
By Somapika Dutta
