About that Hydroxychloroquine for Covid-19 trial

Re:About that Hydroxychloroquine for Covid-19 trial by _ph_ on Monday March 23, 2020 @06:44AM (#22662708)

Yes, doctors should experiment with the drug and I am certain, a lot of those, who have the necessary conditions to perform a proper experiment, will do.

What should not happen now is, that the general public starts taking the drug as a precaution, just because it might work. The known side-effects are too severe (e.g. blindness) and also, there are already shortages of the drug for those who already require it as part of their medical treatment (e.g. immune-supressed).

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Re:About that Hydroxychloroquine for Covid-19 trial by ekianjo on Monday March 23, 2020 @06:53AM (#22662753)

> Blindness

This side effect occurs if you take chloroquine for extended periods of time. Look at the data.

https://eyewiki.aao.org/Hydroxychloroquine_toxicity

"Risk for toxicity is less with <5.0 mg/kg real weight/day for hydroxychloroquine and <2.3 mg/kg real weight/day for chloroquine[2]. Patients are at low risk during the first 5 years of treatment."

And management is as simple as stopping the drug if it starts affecting your vision:

"At the first signs of retinal toxicity, hydroxychloroquine should be stopped to prevent further retinal damage and visual loss[2]. "

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Re:About that Hydroxychloroquine for Covid-19 trial by kevingadd on Monday March 23, 2020 @07:21AM (#22662920)

I'd note that the phrase "further retinal damage and visual loss" implies that retinal damage and visual loss has already occurred... how much of that you are willing to tolerate is up to you, I suppose: I'd prefer 0 unless necessary. If the retinal damage is saving me from a death at the hands of COVID-19 maybe it's worth it, but if it's not...

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Re:About that Hydroxychloroquine for Covid-19 trial by ekianjo on Monday March 23, 2020 @09:15AM (#22663779)

This kind of damage does not occur with short term use of the drug.

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Re:About that Hydroxychloroquine for Covid-19 trial by mcguire on Monday March 23, 2020 @07:26PM (#22670003)

https://www.drugs.com/sfx/hydroxychloroquine-side-effects.ht...

Common (1-10%): rash, itching, diarrhea, vomiting, loss of appetite, headache, blurred vision, "Affect liability" (got no idea what that is).

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Re:About that Hydroxychloroquine for Covid-19 trial by Erlich_Bachman on Monday March 23, 2020 @07:24AM (#22662935)

Did you just read the list of side-effects without checking how often they happen? With that mindset any over the counter medicine will read like description of Zyklon B.

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