Amidst the coronavirus scare, the world is also at a race to find a cure for the COVID-19. However, widely used anti-malarial drugs chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine have emerged as promising medicine. The reports about anti-malaria drug need large controlled clinical trials to provide evidence of how well these drugs work.
The anti-malarial drugs have been among the blend of drug regimens clinicians in China, South Korea, France and Italy have been using at scale with some success to treat people severely ill with Covid-19, which has affected close to 250,000 people and killed at least 10,000 around the world.
US President Donald Trump referred to the drugs on Thursday and went as far as to indicate that a treatment using chloroquine/ hydroxychloroquine will possibly be rolled out first in New York, which has been roiled by the infection. Till Thursday, New York City had around 4,000 cases of people infected with the virus and seen 26 deaths.
Trump said, “I think it going to be very promising. It could be a game-changer. And maybe not. Based on what I see, it could be a game-changer. They’re very powerful.”
However, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was quick to clarify that extensive studies were needed to understand the efficacy of these drugs in combating Covid-19.
Watch Video: