During a pandemic, several drugs are being tested against the diseases. In the current pandemic, there are many drugs and vaccines that are being tested to treat a disease. People around the world hope that something will work, eventually saving the lives of millions of people.
Unfortunately, we see that people rush towards pharmacies to buy drugs without a medical supervisor actually prescribing them the medicine.
This turns out to be disastrous when we see claims from people about the medications without proper medical training and knowledge.
While the internet fights against misinformation, President Donald Trump, on 21st March, Tweeted about the use of two drugs, “Azithromycin” and “hydroxychloroquine,” to be the biggest game-changers in the history of medicine as these will prove to fight against the current COVID-19 pandemic.
In his tweet, Donald Trump actually were instructions for researchers and clinicians, while people took it as instruction for the individuals.
This came two days after a press conference where Donald Trump announced that a drug named “chloroquine” similar to “hydroxychloroquine” was approved by FDA for this issue.
This forced FDA Commissioner, Stephen Hahn to step forward and clarify that this is not actually the case.
When asked about the two drugs being treatments for COVID-19, Advisor of Donald Trump, Dr. Anthony Faucii, who is also head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infection Disease, responded: “The answer is NO, and the evidence that you’re talking about..is anecdotal evidence”.
These drugs are not proven to treat COVID-19. Using such medicine as self-medication can have a severe damaging impact on individuals.
Hydroxychloroquine is mainly used for the treatment of Malaria. In the past, there has been research which demonstrated benefits for some other conditions. It was already proposed to use hydroxychloroquine against HIV and influenza, but the results were disappointing.
It should also be noted that even if hydroxychloroquine shows to work, the side effects are severe if not taken properly under the supervision of a health care professional.
Just to educate about the severity of the side effects, Dr Jennifer Gunter Tweeted:.
To sum it up, NEVER USE MEDICATION WITHOUT PROPER PRESCRIPTION.