Worth a shot? –
Move comes despite worries about lack of evidence, shortage for existing users.
John Timmer – Mar , (8:) pm UTC
exploring potential treatments for SARS-CoV-2 , chloroquine can also alter the pH of the compartment in which some viruses are brought into the cell. This can interfere with the process of depositing the virus ‘genome inside the cell and thus block the virus’ ability to reproduce. Experiments in cultured cells infected by SARS-CoV-2 indicated that chloroquine treatments can keep the virus from spreading within the culture . But cultured cells are very different from the environments the drugs would encounter in the human body, and SARS-CoV-2 obviously behaves differently from earlier coronaviruses. So, ideally, we’d want evidence that it works in humans against the source of the current pandemic.
This has made the drugs difficult to obtain for those who use them to treat immune disorders, raising the prospect that some of the People with those autoimmune disorders will need extensive care from our overstretched medical system. And at least two people attempting to self-medicate have ended up dead. As a result, some scientists have have been harshly critical of Trump’s promotion of the drug.
Given that we probably have weeks to months to go before properly controlled clinical-trial data allows us to make conclusions about any drug’s effectiveness, it’s likely that chloroquine will remain the standard treatment for the peak of several regional epidemics in the US. The one thing that this decision does ensure is that we’ll have lots of anecdotal reports on its use to complicate the public’s understanding of treatment options.
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