re: So now that we have a bonafide cure for this Corona virus can we open everything back up?

Chloroquine raises the pH in the cell which makes it harder for the virus to reproduce. This has been proven in the lab.

We have to be careful saying this is a “cure”. It’s promising but the only thing this study showed was that the amount of virus samples from someone’s throat nose. It is not looking at the severity of the disease, need for ICU, or death rate.

Couple of criticisms:
- 6 people out of the treatment group dropped out (3 went to ICU and 1 died). None dropped out of control group.
- the end point of the study was negative nasal swabs. This doesn’t tell us anything about reducing the risk of intubation or death.

Positives:
- The results show it was very effective at reducing the viral load in the nasal swabs.
- Hydroxychloroquine + Azithromycin was even more effective.
- the treatment group was older by an average of 15 years. Meaning if the ages were matched in the groups the effect may be even more dramatic.

Overall:
Positive news. We now need to look at end points of progression to ICU, need for intubation, and death.

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Chloroquine isnt an antiviral, its antiparasitic. Something is fishy

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We have had no less than three doctors on this forum say that it was promising, and one of those doctors is using it on a patient right now.

We have a small study with 40 patients showing pretty spectacular results. We have the South Koreans and Chinese reportedly using it. It is starting to be used in the US.

The breakthrough from the French study might be the use of both drugs in combination (don't know if others have followed). Hydroxychloroquine showed good results but not amazing results as a standalone drug.

Interested to hear from medical or bioscience professionals why the combination of the two different medicines cited is so effective.

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Interested to hear from medical or bioscience professionals why the combination of the two different medicines cited is so effective.

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It’s hard to say. The numbers in the study are very low. You can’t look at the data from 6 people and extrapolate that on to a population. Like Hopeful Doc said we need stronger data, more patients.

There are a lot of therapies that make lab work look better but have no effect on the outcome of the disease. I’m very hopeful that it helps at least somewhat. I think we need to nail down when in the course of the disease it’s most helpful. I think that will be before someone develops critical disease, but we will see.

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That being said, I would be more open to trying it then Hopeful Doc is. But I wouldn’t go get some right now and start taking it, or take it if I had a mild case. There are side effects.

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Sounds good. Thanks for your and other docs well reasoned input on here!

Interested to hear what Tiguar's takeaway is after using it.

This makes sense from a non-medical professional...

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Richard Horowitz, who has published on the use of the leprosy drug dapsone for Lyme disease, has also extensively used Plaquenil, or hydroxychloroquine. For intractable Lyme disease, “Plaquenil’s effect is based on its ability to help alkalize the intracellular compartment to make certain antibiotics more effective,” he said, noting that he uses a lower dose than in the French study – 400 mg versus 600 mg. “I have used it in thousands of cases and it has been safe at the lower dose range. Higher doses have been reported to have side effects, and time will tell how well tolerated the higher doses are,” he said.

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LINK

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all the way down to the sketchy “cure” that some people claim works but isn’t validated by the CDC

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what a joke. you and all those upvote dupes think the CDC knows anything. The CDC doesn't "validate", people.

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Interested to hear from medical or bioscience professionals why the combination of the two different medicines cited is so effective.

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First, a joke:
Azithromycin is one of the best antiviral agents around. That's why it's prescribed for most viral infections from most urgent cares.


Second, a legitimate statement that's going to sound a bit like a joke:
Azithromycin is fricking magical, and no one can quite explain why. 90d mortality is lower in pneumonia patients over 65 sick enough to go into the hospital that get it. also, if you have ARDS, data also lean towards you doing better with it. It's largely unexplained but theorized, as far as I can tell, that it's got a significant effect on reducing/slowing/stopping the inflammatory cascade. Again, neither of these show much (I think between the two studies there are under 250 patients), but the addition of this new data actually interests me as much in azithromycin as chloroquine and its fancier-sounding cousin.

Am I wrong to be worried about worsening QT prolongation if there is a myocarditis component to COVID?

There's no damned cure and there won't be.

Hopeful Doc and WaWa,

for the excellent discussion.

That is fascinating about zithromax.

Also the previous quote about the use of hydroxychloroquine with an antibiotic to tackle Lyme disease is fascinating. Our daughter got the disease two years ago when we lived in PA. It was terrifying as a parent, but she has been symptom free the past year. (21 day course of antibiotics at the start). That was an eye opening moment for how many unknowns there are with a now relatively common disease/virus. Some quacks and some doctors that seem to ignore its existence, and nothing clear cut.