Dr. Jeff Colyer is back with another piece in the Wall Street Journal providing an update on COVID-19 patients being treated with a combination of the drugs hydroxychloroquine (HC) and azithromycin (more commonly known as Z-Pak).
Newly emerging data are showing more potential promise that COVID-19 can be treated with these medicines, with patients recovering faster than those who have not received the treatment.
There are two sources of evidence for the combination therapy so far. Initial in vitro tests (done in test tubes, not in live humans) have shown that HC is very effective in preventing and inhibiting infection. And emerging clinical evidence, where patients hospitalized with COVID-19 have received HC, or a combination of HC and azithromycin (more commonly known as Z-Pak), have fared significantly better than patients who haven’t received these treatments.
In the most recent study, published last week, 93 percent of 80 hospitalized patients in France who received a combination of HC and AZ tested negative for the coronavirus by day eight. Not only did they get better sooner, their faster return to health allowed the hospital to discharge them sooner.
It’s important to note that the overall evidence is still limited. But some major U.S. hospitals have now included HC in their treatment protocols, including the University of Washington and the University of Michigan, and the FDA is moving to make the medicines available to patients in New York state.
If HC and its combination use with AZ continue to show promise, the supply of both medicines will need to increase drastically in order to treat COVID-19 patients while ensuring that others who need the medicines for other conditions, including lupus, are able to continue accessing a regular supply.
