Great News - July 4

[dan_s]

DETROIT, MI — A new study from the Henry Ford Health System may provide more legitimacy on the use of hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19.

Henry Ford published the peer-reviewed study on July 1, using a large-scale retrospective analysis of patients from March 10 to May 2. The study looked over 2,500 hospitalized patients from the Henry Ford’s six hospitals, said Dr. Marcus Zervos, division head of infectious disease for Henry Ford Health System.

He said the health system wanted to investigate hydroxychloroquine because data showed that it had some clinical benefit and that it could reduce the inflammatory response in COVID-19 patients early in the pandemic.

“We thought that it would be important to us, or potentially important to use in our patients, (because) we didn’t have any other options that were proven,” Zervos said.

The study concluded that treatment with hydroxychloroquine significantly reduces the death rate of COVID-19 patients, Zervos said. Of those treated with hydroxychloroquine alone, 13% of them died, compared to the 26.4% who died and were not treated with the drug. There was an overall 18.1% in-hospital mortality rate and patients were over the age of 18, with a median age of 64.

Many of the fatalities involved people with underlying health diseases, according to an article from Henry Ford Health System. These diseases included chronic kidney and lung disease. Mortality of hospitalized patients ranged between 10% and 30% worldwide.

The study also considered treatment using azithromycin. It found that 20.1% patients treated with both azithromycin and hydroxychloroquine died and 22.4% of those treated only with azithromycin died — compared a death rate of 26.4% for those not treated with either drug, according to the Henry Ford health article.

Can hydroxychloroquine prevent coronavirus? New trial will test 3K healthy first responders in Michigan

However, despite the findings of the study, the article also stated people should be cautious in their reaction to the seemingly encouraging results. Randomized, controlled trials would still be required to confirm hydroxychloroquine’s effectiveness in treating COVID-19.

“Currently, the drug should be used only in hospitalized patients with appropriate monitoring, and as part of study protocols, in accordance with all relevant federal regulations,” Dr. Zervos said in the article.

Hydroxychloroquine is a drug primarily used to treat malaria and lupus. The drug recently gained notoriety when President Donald Trump touted its effectiveness in treating COVID-19, despite warnings from the FDA, according to an article from USA Today.

Use of the drug to treat COVID-19 remains controversial. Many Michigan health systems, such as Michigan Medicine, Beaumont Health and St. Joseph Mercy decided to either not use hydroxychloroquine or stopped doing so after trying it, according to an article from the Detroit News.

FDA revokes emergency approval for hydroxychloroquine, drug Trump touted as possible coronavirus treatment

Zervos said the Henry Ford health study was peer-reviewed, unlike some other studies. While some studies have shown that the drug is not effective, he said studies regarding the drug use different doses.

“These studies that have been negative seem to get more attention,” Zervos said. “But there are plenty of studies that have shown benefits have not received as much attention, not just our study.”

[dan_s]

An international poll of thousands of doctors rated the Trump-touted anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine the best treatment for the novel coronavirus.

Of the 2,171 physicians surveyed, 37 percent rated hydroxychloroquine the “most effective therapy” for combating the potentially deadly illness, according to the results released Thursday.

The survey, conducted by the global health care polling company Sermo, also found that 23 percent of medical professionals had prescribed the drug in the US — far less than other countries.

“Outside the US, hydroxychloroquine was equally used for diagnosed patients with mild to severe symptoms whereas in the US it was most commonly used for high risk diagnosed patients,” the survey found.

The medicine was most widely used in Spain, where 72 percent of physicians said they had prescribed it.

During the survey, a total of 6,227 physicians were questioned in 30 countries about at least 15 treatments used for COVID-19.

Of the 2,171 doctors asked which drug is most effective, 37 percent said hydroxychloroquine. By contrast, 32 percent answered “nothing.”

[srjpilot]

Go to Medcram on youtube and they have an explanation of why HCL works.
It is an Ionopher for Zinc and Zinc when it is internal to the cell prevents the replication of the virus.

[dan_s]

In April a doctor in St. Louis told me to take 50mg of Zinc and drink at least 8 oz of tonic water each day (with gin is OK).