Wuhan doctors treating coronavirus patients with chloroquine for the past months say there's no clear evidence the drug works against COVID19

Chloroquine, the anti-malaria drug touted by President Trump as a possible treatment for COVID-19, may not be effective against the coronavirus after all. Chinese doctors, who have been using the drug for months, said Thursday there’s no clear evidence chloroquine has had much impact.

The doctors said that chloroquine should be studied further, but there’s evidence of chloroquine’s efficacy against the coronavirus is unclear, with some patients still testing positive as many as 10 days into treatment.

“Some patients took it by themselves, and after taking it, there were good and bad” outcomes, Zhang Dingyu, the head of Wuhan’s Jinyintan Hospital, told the Journal. “There’s no scientific conclusion.”

“You can’t see any difference between it and other treatments,” Zhang Junjian, a Wuhan field hospital doctor, told the Journal. He said 20 to 30 patients had been treated with the drug, which can be fatal at certain dosages.

The doctors said, however, the antiviral HIV drug Kaletra, produced by AbbVie, has shown some promise. The drug works by blocking enzymes some viruses need to replicate. Zhang Dingyu said Kaletra, combined with the antibacterial bismuth subcitrate potassium, produced dramatic changes in patients’ lungs. He said he would recommend its usage within three to five days of becoming ill.

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