Nigeria has reported two cases of people overdosing on chloroquine after the drug was touted as a potential cure to the coronavirus.
Health officials in the African nation warned Nigerians against self-medicating with the drug after demand surged following a study suggesting that hydroxychloroquine, a less toxic version of chloroquine, could cure infections of the coronavirus, according to Bloomberg. Two people were hospitalized for chloroquine poisoning.
“Please don’t panic,” said Oreoluwa Finnih, senior health assistant to the governor of Lagos. “Chloroquine is still in a testing phase in combination with other medication and not yet verified as a preventive treatment or curative option.”
Chloroquine was originally developed in the 1950s to treat malaria. It has since been replaced, but hospitals in Africa have kept stores of it to treat patients who react poorly to other medications.
Researchers and virologists in France conducted a study with 26 people infected with the coronavirus, treating them with hydroxychloroquine and the antibiotic azithromycin. The study’s results, released Wednesday, said a group of six patients treated with hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin tested negative for the virus after six days.
President Trump touted the results of the study and the drugs on Thursday.
“HYDROXYCHLOROQUINE & AZITHROMYCIN, taken together, have a real chance to be one of the biggest game changers in the history of medicine,” Trump tweeted.
….be put in use IMMEDIATELY. PEOPLE ARE DYING, MOVE FAST, and GOD BLESS EVERYONE! @US_FDA @SteveFDA @CDCgov @DHSgov
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 21, 2020
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, is on Trump’s coronavirus task force and warned against placing too much hope on hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin to beat the coronavirus. The best medical tool doctors can hope for is a vaccine, which Fauci said is about a year to 18 months away from completion.
