Coronavirus Treatment

                                                

Back in March on the advice of my science advisor, I put up a post on coronavirus antidotes that included a reference to doctors that had been using a combination of the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine and the Z-pac to successfully treat patients with severe symptoms of coronavirus infection.

At the time the treatment, despite its success, was controversial. Although hydroxychloroquine had been used successfully for many years in treating malaria and lupus, it had not been tested for coronavirus. The now famous Dr. Fauci explained that the CDC could not support the use of the drug until it had been fully tested. Moreover, the drug could have serious side effects for those with heart and other conditions.

The drug became even more controversial when President Trump at a press conference alluded to the success that doctors in the field were having with the hydroxychloroquine treatment. Commentators were up in arms. The President’s support meant that the drug entered the political arena.

However, a study has just been published by the respected Henry Ford Health center in Detroit that shows the effectiveness of low-cost hydroxychloroquine in saving lives. It should convince Dr. Fauci although it will not persuade those who cannot believe that President Trump can be right about anything. ** 

Here is the headline from the July 2 press release of the study, “a large-scale retrospective analysis of 2,541 patients hospitalized between March 10 and May 2, 2020 across the system’s six hospitals”: *

DETROIT--Treatment with hydroxychloroquine cut the death rate significantly in sick patients hospitalized with COVID-19--and without heart-related side-effects, according to a new study published by the Henry Ford Health System.

The following quotes from the press release illustrate the study’s methodology and conclusions. (quotes in italics).

The study found 13% of those treated with hydroxychloroquine alone died compared to 26.4% not treated with hydroxychloroquine. None of the patients had documented serious heart abnormalities; however, patients were monitored for a heart condition routinely pointed to as a reason to avoid the drug as a treatment for COVID-19.

Patients treated with hydroxychloroquine at Henry Ford met specific protocol criteria as outlined by the hospital system’s Division of Infectious Diseases. The vast majority received the drug soon after admission; 82% within 24 hours and 91% within 48 hours of admission. All patients in the study were 18 or over with a median age of 64 years; 51% were men and 56% African American.

"The findings have been highly analyzed and peer-reviewed,” said Dr. Marcus Zervos, division head of Infectious Disease for Henry Ford Health System... “We attribute our findings that differ from other studies to early treatment, and part of a combination of interventions that were done in supportive care of patients, including careful cardiac monitoring. Our dosing also differed from other studies not showing a benefit of the drug. And other studies are either not peer reviewed, have limited numbers of patients, different patient populations or other differences from our patients.”

Our analysis shows that using hydroxychloroquine helped save lives,” said neurosurgeon Dr. Steven Kalkanis, CEO, Henry Ford Medical Group and Senior Vice President and Chief Academic Officer of Henry Ford Health System. “As doctors and scientists, we look to the data for insight. And the data here is clear that there was benefit to using the drug as a treatment for sick, hospitalized patients.”

Speaking of saving lives, last week a group of doctors held a press conference at the Nation’s Capital to describe how they had used the hydroxychloroquine treatment to save lives in the hospitals in which they worked. One was impassioned in claiming that no one has to die from the coronavirus. She claimed that she had treated 350 patients with severe symptoms and none of them had died. Her remarks went viral with over 17 million hits but were taken down by media outlets like You Tube which claimed that the brief video did not meet its community standards. 

The Henry Ford Health Center study has received little attention in the media. Everyone wanted a study back at the outset of the pandemic but when one appears that contains good news, it is ignored. It would appear that there are many people who not only can’t believe a study that shows good results but who actually do not want to believe it no matter what its scientific bonafides.

It is too bad that doctors actually saving lives are censored. I have heard that doctors in hospitals take hydroxychloroquine as a prophylactic but keep it secret for fear of ostracism. The other day I heard a TV commentator refer to health officials who recommended the drug as "killers."

The doctors’ strategy could actually help schools to reopen in the Fall. I don’t mean that children should take hydroxychloroquine. Their immune systems handle the virus easily and they are at virtually no risk of being infected. But their teachers, especially the older ones, could routinely take the inexpensive medication as a precaution.  

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*The study was published in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases, the peer-reviewed, open-access online publication of the International Society of Infectious Diseases (ISID.org).

** If you click on the link to the Henry Ford Health center study, you will find that it comes with a warning label as if it is dangerous to read.