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Hydroxychloroquine

About Hydroxychloroquine

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What are Hydroxychloroquine or HCQ?

Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) is a medication usually prescribed to prevent and treat malaria. It is also used to treat chronic skin inflammation and arthritis in patients whose symptoms have not improved with other treatments. Many countries have authorised the hospital use of HCQ or its use in clinical studies under the supervision of healthcare professionals. The drug is in the list of World Health Organization's essential medicines. In the context of the coronavirus pandemic, HCQ was touted to be effective and approved for use as a prophylactic drug by several countries, including India.
 
What are the side effects of the drug?
 
The most common side effects of Hydroxychloroquine are nausea, diarrhoea, stomach pain and vomiting, all of which often improve with time. The less common side effects include rash, changes in skin pigment (such as darkening or dark spots).
 
Why is Hydroxychloroquine in the news?
 
Hydroxychloroquine made headlines recently after US President Donald Trump touted it as a “gamechanger” in the global fight against Covid-19.
 
Can HCQ be used to treat Covid-19?
 
While Hydroxychloroquine is banned in some countries, it is promoted in others. Experts are divided over the use of this drug as a potential treatment for coronavirus. Some early studies showed that it might be able to shorten the duration of symptoms experienced by coronavirus patients, while others indicated it had no positive effect at all. Despite early signs of hope, many large-scale trials have not shown it to be effective for Covd-19 treatment.
 
The US food and drug administration (FDA), which had earlier approved emergency use of HCQ to treat adults and adolescents hospitalised with Covid-19, later revoked the decision citing clinical studies that did not find substantial benefits.
 
The WHO, too, announced that the HCQ arm of the solidarity trial to find an effective Covid-19 treatment was being stopped. The decision was based on the trial that showed the drug did not result in reduction of mortality of hospitalised Covid-19 patients.

Latest Updates on Hydroxychloroquine

That is a lot of heft for a community that makes up about 7 million people and less than 10 per cent of all the tribes in India

Updated On: 23 Jun 2022 | 7:34 AM IST

A study says, hydroxychloroquine inhibits pathways that drive resistance to chemotherapy agent cisplatin in head and neck cancers and restores tumour-killing effects of cisplatin in animal models

Updated On: 20 Mar 2022 | 12:14 PM IST

The discussion has been sparked by a new study from the University of Glasgow that looks at how antibodies from vaccines block omicron from entering cells

Updated On: 17 Jan 2022 | 1:52 PM IST

Emergency use authorisation to continue; recently, WHO had raised doubts about efficacy of drug in treatment of Covid-19 patients

Updated On: 02 Nov 2020 | 11:00 PM IST

Business Standard brings you the top headlines of the day

Updated On: 16 Oct 2020 | 5:45 PM IST

This study, first published on MedRxiv, has already made significant impacts in the healthcare community

Updated On: 29 Aug 2020 | 5:13 PM IST

The combination of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin has been linked to significant cardiovascular risks, including mortality, in the largest safety study ever performed on both HCQ and HCQ+AZM.

Updated On: 26 Aug 2020 | 11:42 AM IST

The "deep state" is a term used by Trump to describe employees of government agencies that he believes are manipulating policy to work against his interests

Updated On: 23 Aug 2020 | 7:03 AM IST

Its case tally is higher than the combined total of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, the next two most affected states

Updated On: 22 Aug 2020 | 7:48 AM IST

The problem is that traditionally there has been poor scrutiny of clinical trials in India where often the emphasis is on cutting costs, said Arun Bhatt, former president of the ISCR

Updated On: 21 Aug 2020 | 11:37 AM IST

New research adds to the growing body of evidence that how the famous anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) is not a possible defence against Covid-19

Updated On: 18 Aug 2020 | 12:34 PM IST

Potential Covid-19 treatment drug launched under brand name Remdac in India

Updated On: 13 Aug 2020 | 12:31 PM IST

According to the clinical management protocol for Covid-19, the HCQ has been described as 'repurposed or off-label therapy.'

Updated On: 29 Jul 2020 | 5:48 PM IST

Global airlines cut their coronavirus recovery forecast on Tuesday, saying it would take until 2024 - a year longer than previously expected - for passenger traffic to return to pre-crisis levels

Updated On: 29 Jul 2020 | 1:05 PM IST

In May, Trump disclosed that he was taking daily doses of hydroxychloroquine to ward off coronavirus after consulting the White House doctor

Updated On: 29 Jul 2020 | 11:37 AM IST

Clearly there is community transmission, as defined by any international standard, says eminent epidemiologist Dr Ramanan Laxminarayan

Updated On: 28 Jul 2020 | 7:35 PM IST

They found that HCQ showed no substantial antiviral activity, regardless of the timing of treatment initiation, either before infection, soon after infection, or late after infection

Updated On: 22 Jul 2020 | 5:20 PM IST

India accounts for 40 per cent of US generic drug imports, including the anti-malarial hydroxychloroquine, touted by US President Donald Trump in the fight against Covid-19.

Updated On: 21 Jul 2020 | 1:00 AM IST

Business Standard takes a look at the common drugs that are being used in India for treating Covid-19 patients

Updated On: 20 Jul 2020 | 12:38 AM IST

The idea that hydroxychloroquine is a dangerous drug is 'just silly', says Peter Navarro, White House Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy Director.

Updated On: 08 Jul 2020 | 7:43 AM IST