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Hospitals are experimenting with corona treatment, but ‘no evidence that it works’

These treatment recommendations list three medications that hospitals can use in seriously ill corona patients.

These include chloroquine, which is used in the treatment of malaria. The means are therefore known and used, but not yet in the fight against the corona virus.


Not clear if it works

“It is therefore not clear whether the drug is actually effective in corona patients,” Menno van der Eerden of the Dutch Association of Doctors for Pulmonary Diseases and Tuberculosis told RTL Nieuws. Van der Eerden is also a pulmonologist at Erasmus MC.

He emphasizes that no results of studies in patients with corona are known yet, only results from laboratory studies. “We know that virus inhibition works in the laboratory, which has been shown,” says Van der Eerden. “That in itself is beneficial.”

But: that is not to say that the drugs also work in the corona patient’s body. So there are only suspicions that the drugs could be effective.


No time for

“To determine if those drugs work, you should compare the results with a group that doesn’t get it,” explains Van der Eerden. “And there is no time for that now. Due to the speed of the disease and its severity, this research has not yet started in the Netherlands.”

The drugs can also have adverse side effects, such as nausea, gastrointestinal complaints, headache, serious heart complaints and arrhythmias.


At home and in the hospital

For most corona patients with milder complaints, the following applies: to stay at home and keep a close eye on your health, just like when you have the flu.

If patients are short of breath, or dehydrated (or both), they end up in the hospital, where they are given fluid and oxygen.


Much unknown

Van der Eerden: “It is also known that chloroquine cannot be given at the same time as many medicines, because of the side effects. In that case it could even be harmful to the patient.”

A large number of hospitals treat patients with chloroquine. It is not clear how many there are. It is also unknown how many patients have already received the medicines. The sicker patients in particular are given the medicines. It is not clear whether people have been cured as a result. “But sometimes you stand with your back to the wall.”

“That is why we have to wait for the results of studies in China before we really know whether the medicines are effective,” says Van der Eerden. “Now there is no hard evidence for that.”


Difference between medicine and vaccine?

A vaccine, which is currently not available for the coronavirus, has a preventive effect. It prevents healthy people from getting sick.

A drug is intended for people who have the disease. A drug can inhibit the disease or heal the patient. However, a tested corona drug has not yet been found.


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