Doctors  back away from Trump touted medicine

Doctors who are part of the advisory team of the Ministry of Health (Minsa) say that Panama should rethink the use of the drug chloroquine and its derivative, hydroxychloroquine, touted by President Donald Trump for patients with Covid-19.

The stance comes after the publication of a study in the world-renowned medical journal The Lancet , which indicates that patients who consumed this drug are at greater risk of suffering from arrhythmias, a heart problem that can cause death.

The research, the largest to date on the use of this medicine, took into account 96 thousand patients in 671 hospitals around the world and showed no benefit in those infected hospitalized with Covid-19.

In Panama, these drugs were mainly used with patients hospitalized in wards and those who are in isolation in the so-called hospital hotels, with minor illnesses.

After learning about the study, several of the doctors who collaborate with the Minsa in the fight against the new coronavirus consider that the use of this drug must be reconsidered. One of them is Javier Nieto, who rated the study as one of the “most robust” he has ever seen of hydroxychloroquine. “It is a good example of how evidence-based medicine is putting the role of drugs in treating Covid-19 into place.”

According to Nieto, in this particular case there is more and more evidence every day that makes it clear that chloroquine and hydroxychlorichine do not play any valuable role against the virus, and that they generate more risk than benefit. “Of course, you have to reconsider the use. Without any doubt ”, he said

On who should make that decision, the specialist mentioned that it will be up to the Ministry of Health to adopt a final judgment on the future of this drug in the treatment of infected patients.

He recalled that all of this is part of the discussion that was held at the time to develop patient care protocols.

“At the beginning it could be justified. Now of course it has no benefit. This is the science of dynamics. What was considered true two or three months ago is not true today, ”he concluded.

The Minsa’s adviser, Julio Sandoval, agreed with Nieto that its use should be rethought. “The Minsa and the Advisory Committee will be in the task of reviewing these treatments,” he added.

Chloroquine and its derivative, hydroxychloroquine, are medications that the president of the United States, Donald Trump, defends in the cure of patients infected with Covid-19. Even last Monday, he announced that he takes hydroxychloroquine as a precaution.

Trump – who refuses to wear a mask in public – has come to call chloroquine a “revolutionary” drug. Another of the leaders who at the time promoted the use of chloroquine was the Brazilian Jair Bolsonaro.