During the daily coronavirus White House briefing on Monday, Donald Trump once again jumped to conclusions about using two well-known anti-malarial drugs to treat coronavirus infections. He now says it will start being handed out to patients in New York tomorrow.
He made similar statements over the weekend, and as a result, two things happened: a run on the drugs “all but exhausted” supplies across the U.S. — and three self-medicating patients in Africa were poisoned.
Some new studies have suggested possible benefits of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, but medical experts say there’s no solid evidence they have any effect on the coronavirus that causes the deadly disease Covid-19, reports the Washington Post.
But that lack of evidence didn’t stop Trump from calling the two drugs “a gamechanger” for fighting Covid-19, and tweeting over the weekend that he hoped the medicines would be “put in use IMMEDIATELY.”
Standing right next to Trump at the White House on Friday as the president touted the two drugs was Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
The limited testing of the medications on coronavirus cases, Fauci said later, “was not done in a controlled clinical trial, so you really can’t make any definitive statement about it.”
But where does that leave patients with diseases for which the medications are actually intended?
One of our News & Guts writers has taken this medication for years to treat her lupus. She was due for a refill today, but the pharmacist at the CVS where she fills the prescription in Miami, Florida told her it’s now back-ordered. She said they may not get the drug back in for months. Another pharmacist told her that the meds are now being pooled together to send to hospitals, leaving those who rely on it for FDA approved reasons high and dry.
“The sudden shortages of the two drugs could come at a serious cost for lupus and rheumatoid arthritis patients who depend on them to alleviate symptoms of inflammation, including preventing organ damage,” says the Post, adding that for such patients “there are no good alternatives.”
Meanwhile, Arizona-based Banner Health reported that an unidentifed couple in their 60s were sickened after taking a fish tank cleaning chemical with a name similar to one of the medications — chloroquine phosphate. Both were hospitalized, and the man died.
Premier Inc., a group purchasing organization for 4,000 U.S. hospitals, says its data showed a 300% week-over-week increase in orders of chloroquine and a 70% boost in orders of hydroxychloroquine during the first 17 days of March.
“Both drugs are pretty much depleted right now in the distribution channel and wholesale distributors are reporting both products on back order,” a Premier executive told the Post.
Meanwhile, reports Bloomberg News, “Nigeria reported two cases of chloroquine poisoning” from overdoses after Trump praised the drug as a coronavirus treatment.
“Health officials are warning Nigerians against self-medicating after demand for the drug surged in Lagos, a city that’s home to 20 million people,” Bloomberg says.
“Please don’t panic,“ a senior Nigerian health official said, speaking to worried citizens.
“Chloroquine is still in a testing phase in combination with other medication and not yet verified as a preventive treatment or curative option,” she added.