Miracle medicine or hasty treatment of the epidemic of Corona? Five questions about chloroquine

With the growing epidemic of Corona (Covid-19), day after day, chloroquine - prescribed for malaria - has shown efficacy against this new disease, but a great deal of suspicion and suspicion by the relevant authorities hovered around it, despite its testing in China and its adoption in Marseille, France; so why not Is it legalized after its widespread adoption?

In order to clarify what is going on about this medicine, the French site "LCE" posed five clarifying questions, which we will review in an article by Felicia Cedres.

The website said that the experts criticized what the director of the Mediterranean Institute of Infection in Marseille Didier Raoul suggested, because of the small number of those who had been tested, however, chloroquine would be part of a wide European clinical experience, and had opened the door to use in "more serious cases", according to the recommendations of the Supreme Council of Health in France.

What are we talking about?
Chloroquine is actually a common remedy for malaria, which is inexpensive and used for nearly seven decades, and is marketed in particular under the name "Nevakin", and it is highly recommended when going to an area infested with mosquitoes that are transmitted by mosquitoes; why should we talk about it now? ?

According to the site, talk about this treatment at this time is caused by what Chinese researchers said, that 500 milligrams of chloroquine per day for ten days would be sufficient to treat Covid-19.

This clinical study, conducted by three researchers, was published on February 19 in the "Bioscience Friend" magazine, and its results were based on an experiment conducted in more than ten hospitals in China, especially in Wuhan epidemic center, according to the site.

The conclusions were clear, the researchers wrote, saying that "the results obtained so far on more than a hundred patients, showed that chloroquine phosphate was more effective than the treatment received by another group for comparison, in containing the development of pneumonia, and in improving the condition of the lungs, And in returning the patient negatively, and in shortening the duration of the disease. "

However - as the site indicates - this very brief study does not quantify the amount of this difference in effectiveness, nor was it published in a preliminary way, meaning that it was published without validation by a committee of scientific experts.

Who is a defender of clorkine in France?

The first talk about chloroquine was reported on February 25, according to the site, when infectious disease specialist Didier Raul announced - in a video - about "the end of the game" for Corona virus, saying "We already know that chloroquine was effective in the laboratory against this." The new virus, and this was confirmed by a clinical evaluation conducted in China.

This specialist happily described these conclusions as "extraordinary news", given that "this treatment does not cost anything," and said, "Ultimately, this disease may be the simplest and the cheapest treatment among all types of viral diseases."

Raul, who is one of 11 members of the French parliament’s scientific council, has been criticized, especially by the "Vic Med" group, which includes scientists fighting false information in the health field, and they warned last February of the unwanted effects In it for this medicine.

However, these criticisms did not discourage Raul, who headed an experiment at Timon Hospital, on 24 patients with Covid-19, and the results were amazing, as described by the head of the department of infectious patients at the Mediterranean University Hospital, Philip Barola, saying, "After six days, none of them had a virus For disclosure, "the government has described these clinical trials as" promising. "

US President Donald Trump praised the French scholar's work and "very exciting" news, saying at a news conference, "We have nothing to lose. I think it could be game changer, or maybe not," and he made clear that this drug would be available "almost immediately".

However, the US Food and Drug Administration did not share Trump's enthusiasm for this drug, explaining that chloroquine had not been approved against the current epidemic, but its director Stephen Han said it would conduct an "extended clinical trial."

The US Food and Drug Administration has pointed to a problem, which is that "the scientific community is not completely convinced," or, as the second person in the French Ministry of Health, Jerome Salomon, said that many experts call for caution unless more studies are conducted, especially with regard to the negative effects that can be To be serious.

The site's health advisor and first French TV Gerald Kerzek said this drug is not without side effects. He advised emergency medicine not to rush to take chloroquine, saying that "we should wait for further tests."

One of the effects of this drug is "disorders of the immune system, intestinal cramps, nausea, vomiting, liver problems, and even blood," said Jean-Paul Gero, who is one of the most famous pharmacologists and member of the French Academy of Medicine. Who said that this drug could be "very dangerous in case of an overdose."

She pointed to the extremely dangerous effects of this drug, a senior official of the Nigerian Ministry of Health, saying he poisoned patients in Nigeria, surprisingly the messages on social networks that promote him as a treatment for Corona.

Where is France from all this?
The site said that the French authorities viewed Raul's work with great caution, and as a result, chloroquine was not among the four treatments that were tested in the clinical trials announced by the government, but that a change in course was made after less than a week, as French Health Minister Olivier Ferrand indicated that "I am authorized to conduct a larger trial by other teams, to start as soon as possible on a larger number of patients."

The Minister of Health also said that he was in close contact with Didier Raoul, who "welcomed the interesting results" and stressed that "it is necessary that any public health policy decision be based on validated scientific data."

While the French Health Minister awaits data in "less than two weeks" about these experiments, chloroquine has become part of a large clinical trial that began at the European level, called "Discovery" and is being conducted on 3,200 patients on the continent, including 800 French.