More than 100 Americans have died after taking hydroxychloroquine in a failed attempt to treat or prevent coronavirus so far this year, according to a new report.
In the first six months of 293 people died after taking hydroxychloroquine, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel of the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) reporting system for seizures.
That is compared to just 75 in the first half of 2019.
Much like public health experts use the number of ‘excessive’ deaths to estimate how many people have died from coronavirus but have not yet been counted, the Sentinel looked at data on those other 218 deaths.
The reason ‘more than half’ of these people had hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine was COVID-19.
It comes after the overwhelming majority of large, credible studies on the use of the malaria drug to treat coronavirus showed – despite Trump’s repeated optimism about it – that it offers no benefit to people with the viral infection.
More than 100 people died after taking hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19, an analysis of FDA adverse event data reveals
Some of those studies were even briefly stopped because of concerns about the potential to cause fatal heart arrhythmias, or after the group gave up the drug began to die at higher rates than those who simply received support.
When early studies suggested that hydroxychloroquine may have antiviral effects and improve the chances of recovery and survival for infected people, President Trump advised that it was safe – a conclusion he made based on the fact that the drug is FDA approved .
“What do you have to lose?” Trump asked when he encouraged us to use hydroxychloroquine to treat coronavirus.
The drug is in fact approved by the regulatory body to treat the mosquito-borne disease malaria and autoimmune diseases such as lupus and rheumatoid arthritis.
To get that seal of approval it went through strict safety tests, but it also comes with a warning that it can cause heart arrhythmias which may be quite unthinkable in some but lead to poor heart function and even death in others.
People with heart disease are also at greater risk of becoming seriously ill from or dying from COVID-19.
President Trump urges people to try hydroxychloroquine to treat coronavirus, and asks ‘what do you need to get rid of’ (file)
On Sunday, Admiral Brett Giroir told Meet the Press that he ‘can not recommend’ taking hydroxychloroquine for treatment or prevention of coronavirus
Doctors may not prescribe hydroxychloroquine, even for its approved use, to people with pre-existing heart conditions.
But after Trump’s approval, doctors began prescribing left and right. The number of prescriptions of hydroxychloroquine filled in one week in March was more than 2,000 percent higher than fillings for the same drug a year prior.
As more studies warned of the alarming arrhythmias seen in subjects treated with the drug and suspected high death rates, the FDA issued a warning that the drug should only be used to treat COVID-19 experimentally under the close supervision of a physician.
By June, the agency introduced its authorization for emergency use of hydroxychloroquine to fully treat coronavirus.
But it may not have been enough to stop the drug from being used properly, and with potentially fatal consequences.
Between January and June of 2020, there were 6,588 unusual drug-related incidents reported to the FDA, and 6,223 of them ‘serious’, meaning they could be shut down or killed by Epson Hospital.
That was about twice as many total unusual events as reported in conjunction with the drug in 2019, and nearly three times as many ‘serious’ adverse events.
In recent weeks, three of the most prominent members of Trump’s own task force – Dr. Deborah Birx, Dr. Anthony Fauci and Admiral Brett Giroir – have warned against the use of hydroxychloroquine to treat coronavirus.
But the drug must remain on the market. It is an important preventive and treatment for malaria, and the only medicine that brings relief to some lupus patients.
As long as it is approved for this use, doctors may prescribe hydroxychloroquine to people with COVID-19, however uncertain it may be.
If patients continue to be given unproven medication to treat coronavirus, an excess of dangerous side effects seems to persist as deaths linked to dooming, then it will be in the hands of providers to protect their patients.
.
