{"id":5535,"date":"2020-04-09T01:10:55","date_gmt":"2020-04-09T01:10:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/?p=5535"},"modified":"2020-04-09T01:10:57","modified_gmt":"2020-04-09T01:10:57","slug":"potential-harms-of-chloroquine-hydroxychloroquine-and-azithromycin-for-treating-covid-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/potential-harms-of-chloroquine-hydroxychloroquine-and-azithromycin-for-treating-covid-19\/","title":{"rendered":"Potential harms of chloroquine, hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin for treating COVID-19"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Chloroquine, hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin are being used to treat and prevent COVID-19 despite weak evidence for effectiveness, and physicians and patients should be aware of the drugs&#8217; potentially serious adverse events, states a review in\u00a0<\/strong><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cmaj.ca\/content\/cmaj\/early\/2020\/04\/08\/cmaj.200528.full.pdf\"><em><strong>CMAJ<\/strong><\/em><strong>\u00a0(<\/strong><em><strong>Canadian Medical Association Journal<\/strong><\/em><strong>)<\/strong><\/a><strong>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Physicians and patients should be aware of several rare but potentially life-threatening adverse effects of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine,&#8221; says Dr. David Juurlink, Division of Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, and a senior scientist at ICES.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The review provides an overview of potential harms associated with these drugs as well as their management based on the best available evidence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Potential adverse effects include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Cardiac arrhythmias<\/li><li>Hypoglycemia<\/li><li>Neuropsychiatric effects, such as agitation, confusion, hallucinations and paranoia<\/li><li>Interactions with other drugs<\/li><li>Metabolic variability (some people metabolize chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine poorly and a small percentage metabolize them rapidly, which affects the response to treatment)<\/li><li>Overdose (chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine are highly toxic in overdose and can cause seizures, coma and cardiac arrest)<\/li><li>Drug shortages (patients with autoimmune disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus and other chronic diseases, who take hydroxychloroquine to treat these conditions could have problems accessing this drug)<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The review summarizes the poor quality of evidence suggesting that these treatments might be beneficial in patients with COVID-19 and cautions that it is possible that these treatments could worsen the disease.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Despite optimism (in some, even enthusiasm) for the potential of chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine in the treatment of COVID-19, little consideration has been given to the possibility that the drugs might negatively influence the course of disease,&#8221; says Dr. Juurlink. &#8220;This is why we need a better evidence base before routinely using these drugs to treat patients with COVID-19.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Safety considerations with chloroquine, hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin in the management of SARS-CoV-2 infection&#8221; is published April 8, 2020.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chloroquine, hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin are being used to treat and prevent COVID-19 despite weak evidence for effectiveness, and physicians and patients should be aware of the drugs&#8217; potentially serious adverse events.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":5536,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,36,4,35],"tags":[2329,2327,2296,2294,2328],"class_list":["post-5535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fitness","category-health-wellness-2","category-newsmakers","category-wellness-2","tag-azithromycin","tag-chloroquine","tag-coronavirus","tag-covid-19","tag-hydroxychloroquine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5535"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5535\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5537,"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5535\/revisions\/5537"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}