| JRPGfan said: France first believed it worked (they tried it on very mild cases, who recovered faster). China tried it, reported it doesnt work. |
The drug itself was worth a closer inspection, because it has several mechanisms (not all of which are well understood) how it can inhibit virus reproduction and it has shown so in in vitro tests. But it seems the dose needed to reach high enough (Hydroxy-)Chloroquine concentrations in cells/tissue targeted by SARS-CoV-2 - especially in the middle/later stages of the illness - is too much for the body/the heart to handle. Additionally there now is good evidence that targeted tissue is present in many organs including the heart, so treatment with a drug that can negatively affect the heart function seems too risky in critical cases.
There still might be a "golden window" in the earlier stages of the disease, when not as many virus particles are around, in which more tolerable doses of HQC/QC could be effective in lowering the amount of successful reproductions. Maybe that's what the first (limited, not peer reviewed) study picked up on.
Last edited by Lafiel - on 23 April 2020
