When there is no other preventive and therapeutic treatment for corona virus then why not to try Hydroxychloroquine and Super-Immuno IV-Drip with high Vitamin C which are scientifically proven to be affective. You must trust evidence based medicine and prevent huge loss of life than to wait for randomized trials which may take more than a year.
I have failed to understand that coronavirus infection is spreading in the country and still no one is serious and everyone is trying to do business and political point scoring on the cost of lives of the people. The disease is expected to spread rapidly in the country and God forbid there can be huge loss of life if we are not serious.
Pakistan Allergy Asthma and Immunology Society has developed the protocol with cheap medicine and immunobosters which can be preventive and treatment. This protocol is being followed with similar medicines in UK and in different countries. I am receiving several requests daily for this protocol which is registered Patent protocol in USA. I was informed similar medicines are being used by Queen Elizabeth Hospital Edgbaston Birmingham. In fact one of their consultants was having corona virus infection and was treated by a doctor who got our protocol from me. Pakistan Allergy Asthma will be publishing easy to read and follow guidelines for prevention and treatment to be used by general public, clinics hospitals and ICU Units for serous patients.
The COVID-19 pandemic has gripped the entire world to a standstill. While there are unprecedented number of hospitalizations and mortality rates, scientists are yet to firmly develop, or have consensus on, the prevention and treatment medicines or vaccines for the treatment. COVID-19 vaccine may take up to a year to come to the market. Even after its introduction to the market, it is still unknown how long will global distribution take.
Evidence Based Medicine or Randomized Clinical Trials: I am sorry to say that we are still not serious and cannot appreciate the gravity of the situation. We must reevaluate our lockdown policies and re-evaluate evidence-based medicine. Most of the scientists are advocating Randomized Trials before starting simple effective medicines which can save life. They dismiss the Observational studies providing evidence of the effectiveness of medicines such as Hydroxychloroquine without rigorous reviews, recommending suspected studies just because these happen to be randomized trials. We must understand that time is passing fast and we are losing precious lives and we cannot wait for months for those luxury randomized trials. We need to act fast and use the data we have.
First, we must understand what Evidence Based medicine is. Let me explain; Evidence-based medicine is the integration of individual clinical expertise with the best available research evidence from systematic research and the patient’s values and expectations. The efficient approach to finding the best evidence is to identify a systematic review or evidence-based clinical practice guidelines by integrating each study into the body of existing data, combining the best available science, reaching defensible conclusions and prescribing the medicines which can be effective.
To explain a little further – by leveraging the evidence-based medicine approach we can know the Pre randomized Trial Probability of Success, which means that we can evaluate the likelihood of the drug efficacy before we get the data from the randomized scientific trials.
For the pandemic at hand, I would like to advocate Hydroxychloroquine, which is endorsed by half of the world while the others oppose its use, as prophylactic and therapeutic treatment for Covid-19 infections.
Hydroxychloroquine has a long history of use as antimalarial, antibiotic and antiviral. It has proven to be effective in vitro to inhibit corona virus by changing the structure of the receptors and preventing the attachment of the virus to the receptors on the target cells. In scientific terms, it inhibits viral entry and replication via intracellular alkalization, by interfering w/ maturation of viral particles through impaired glycosylation which are the indirect immunomodulatory effects.
Even if we consider that the chances to be affective are 50:50, we must consider its use since there is no other alternative. To advocate its effectiveness let’s look at the following studies:
1. Efficacy of hydroxychloroquine in patients with COVID-19: results of a randomized clinical trial by Zhaowei Chen etall (BMJ Yale): 62 hospitalized pts (mean age, 45 yo) w/ mild dz (SAO2 >93%) due to confirmed COVID-19 randomized to HCQ 200 mg bid x5 days or placebo, plus standard of care; HCQ-treated pts had shorter duration of cough (2.0 days vs 3.1 days) and fever (2.2 days vs 3.2 days), and higher rates of pneumonia improvement (80.6% vs 54.8%); 4 pts in placebo arm progressed to severe dz; 2 pts in HCQ arm developed mild ADRs
2. Hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin as a treatment of COVID-19: results of an open label non-randomized clinical trial Philippe Gautret P: Thirty-six patients in France with COVID-19 were examined. Twenty were administered hydroxychloroquine and 16 were controls.
Concerns about taking Hydroxychloroquine: Some people consider hydroxychloroquine to be dangerous since it causes prolongation of QT Interval, but they should consider that most of the medicines being used daily have similar effects. These medicines include the likes of Azithromycin, Erythromycin, Clarithromycin, Levofloxacin, Moxifloxacin, Fluconazole, Ketoconazole, Metronidazole (Flagyl), antipsychotic and anti-depressants. So, Chloroquine and these medicines do not prolong the QT Interval of every person, and adrenaline used for the treatment of anaphylaxis. American College of Cardiology has given guidelines for the heart diseases patients susceptible to developing prolongation of qt interval and Ventricular Arrythmias. Anyone can calculate the Risk Score and if he thinks it can cause Ventricular Arrhythmias and according to Risk Factor Score he can avoid it.
Recommendations of American College of Cardiology (ACC) for use of Hydroxychloroquine and Azithromycin in cardiac patients. Ventricular Arrhythmia Risk Due to Hydroxychloroquine-Azithromycin Treatment for COVID-19. You have to calculate your Risk Score for drug-Associated QTc prolongation by consulting the table and adding the Risk factor Points: If you have less than 6 Risk factor Points you have Low Risk to develop prolongation of QT interval and Ventricular fibrillation; If you have 7-10 points you have Moderate Risk; If you have more than 11 points, then you have high risk
The guidelines are on webpage www.allergypaais.org and www.allergycenter.info and can be downloaded or you can have by email.