Video: New Jersey doctor gives update on use of hydroxychloroquine, remdesivir on coronavirus patients

The chief physician executive at Hackensack Meridian Health in New Jersey discussed on “Fox & Friends” how drugs meant to treat other conditions are now being used to help treat COVID-19 patients.

“Anything that might work, it's nice to get out there,” Dr. Daniel Varga said on Monday. “It's great to use it in emergency situations, use it for compassionate use. Even better to get it out in clinical trials.”

Varga made the comments responding to a report where two coronavirus patients in New York City were moved out of the intensive care unit after taking an experimental drug typically used to treat HIV and breast cancer. The patients went from being on ventilators in the ICU to a regular hospital in a matter of days, The Daily Mail reported. Studies reportedly suggest the drug, leronlimab, calms the overly aggressive immune response that could lead to pneumonia and even death.

Chloroquine and the similar drug, hydroxychloroquine, have shown encouraging signs in small, early tests against the novel coronavirus, but they have yet to be studied during a controlled clinical trial.

“We are using hydroxychloroquine as an off-label use,” Varga said on Monday. “We use it for our intubated patients for the most part. We’re also using it for some of our nursing home patients because that's a group that you don't want to get sick, don't want to it to spread because they're so vulnerable.”

“And the other trial that we are looking at right now that we hope to get launched later this week, we’ve actually had it fast-tracked up until now, is actually using hydroxychloroquine for what we call chemoprophylaxis or prevention for front-line caregivers,” he added.

Some on Chloroquine have recovered and been sent home

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Last Edited by Slowly awakening on 03/30/2020 02:10 PM