Doctors warn Health Ministry against 'outdated' hydroxychloroquine treatment for Covid-19

 Click to read the article in Turkish

Covid-19 has no specific treatment that has proved to be reliable and effective.

There are ongoing studies for more than 100 vaccines and medicines around the world.

Although there is limited scientific data about the virus, for now, the treatment options that meet the need for an urgent solution are applied similarly all over the world.

A drug that has been used since the beginning of the pandemic and caused controversy in the world is hydroxychloroquine, a malaria medication.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warned health workers about the side effects of hydroxychloroquine on April 24 and canceled the permission for its use in Covid-19 treatment on June 15, excluding clinical trials. US President Donald Trump had often praised the drug.

Turkey's Ministry of Health recommended hydroxychloroquine in its Adult Patient Treatment Guideline for Covid-19, which was last updated on October 9.

Professional groups: It shouldn't be used

The Turkish Medical Association (TTB) said in its sixth monthly report on the pandemic that "The use of hydroxychloroquine in asymptomatic cases, which was thought to be rationalistic at the start of the outbreak, has become baseless with up-to-date scientific data. The current scientific evidence does not support the routine use of hydroxychloroquine in asymptomatic cases."

The Turkish Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (Klimik) had also said that "Studies have shown that hydroxychloroquine was not effective in the treatment of outpatient, hospitalized, mild, moderate and severe Covid-19 cases."

"Unless there are the results of a new randomized control clinical studies that state otherwise, hydroxychloroquine should not be used in the treatment and prophylaxis of asymptomatic, mild, moderate and severe forms of Covid-19," it had noted.

"Ministry's guidelines are not up-to-date"

Prof. Esin Şenol, an infectious diseases specialist at Ankara's Gazi University, told bianet that "It is really impossible to understand this insistence. In the guide, hydroxychloroquine is recommended for all patients with a positive test at every stage [of the disease]."

"Chloroquine is not only a useless agent, but also it is demonstrated that it can cause significant harm. It's an agent with long side effects. Its removal from the body can take two months after its use is discontinued. Therefore, it may also be responsible for some side effects that you experience at home," she added.

"What is being done wrong here is that the treatment guidelines are not updated according to scientific data and are incompatible with guidelines around the world.

"It is quite wrong to give everyone medication without calculating the side effects. Here, I loudly say that 'You are using a very wrong drug'. This is actually an accusation at the same time. So they have to come out and respond to that."

Saying that the outbreak has not been öanaged transparently in Turkey, Şenol noted that when the figures about how many people used hydroxychloroquine and favipiravir, another antiviral, should be made public.

Dr. Nilüfer Aykaç from the İstanbul Medical Chamber's Covid-19 Monitoring Committee also said that the hydroxychloroquine recommendation should be reviewed as scientific evidence shows that it shouldn't be used. (DŞ/VK)