Covid-19: Promising results with Chloroquine?
Thursday, 09 April 2020 11:51 
(Togo First) - After the first works published by French virologist Didier Raoult on chloroquine as a potential cure for Covid-19, another study showing similar results was recently published.
The second study was conducted at Renmin Hospital in Wuhan (China) on 62 patients aged about 45 years. The patients were handpicked to exclude those who suffer from cardiac diseases, eye, liver and kidney problems (as they can develop serious side effects from using the drug, especially in the event of overdose).
Half of the study’s patients were treated following the same protocol used for coronavirus-infected patients (control group), and the other half received that treatment plus the anti-malaria drug.
Results of the study show that “cough and fever reduced a day or two earlier for the group that was administered the hydroxychloroquine molecule, while pneumonia improved for 25 out of the 31 patients, as against 17 out of 31 patients from the control group. Subjects who were given hydroxychloroquine seemed to recover faster.”
Two patients had minor side-effects: one had skin rashes and the second had headaches.
In addition to these conclusions, it seems that taking the drug when symptoms arise lowers the risks of the disease advancing to a more severe stage.
The tested drug brings hope, in the absence of more efficient protocols. However, more research has to be done to determine the appropriate dosage to treat the infected.
In the meantime, Chloroquine has been widely adopted as a treatment in Africa, Togo included.
Ayi Renaud Dossavi
