The Directorate-General for Health (DGS) recommends since April the prescription of a drug for malaria, hydroxychloroquine, to treat covid-19 – “for at least seven days”. However, this drug has already been discarded by the World Health Organization (WHO), recalls this Thursday the “Jornal de Notícias”. The standard that recommends the drug (004/20) defines how patients suspected of covid-19 should be approached.
Although the guidance to prescribe this medicine remains in force, doctors heard by the JN guarantee that they are not following it. Instead, they are prescribing drugs like Remdesivir, also recommended by DGS – and WHO.
DGS has already promised to revise the standard soon, but doctors note that there are other guidelines that are not being updated systematically. For example, one of the rules in force says that the criteria for determining a suspected infection include “history of travel to, or residence in, Wuhan”, the Chinese province where the pandemic originated in late 2019. There are also outdated guidelines regarding mass events, a topic on which the Ordem dos Médicos asked for clear rules last week. To JN, DGS assured that several standards, including these, are being updated, and expects “a quick resolution”.
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