Detroit Mayor Mike Daghan and Henry Ford Health Systems have reported that a Detroit-based hospital system is the first among healthcare workers and first responders to use the drug hydroxychloroquine to prevent coronavirus. Announced that it will lead large US research.

The study will look at 3,000 people to see if treatment with drugs can make them less susceptible to illness.

According to Dagan, the idea targets people who are desperate to help others during a pandemic, saying, “ Our healthcare workers and their first responders, hydroxychloroquine, were early on. Test whether the treatment can prevent the disease, or if they get the disease, are the symptoms mild, and there is only one way to do it scientifically, It’s a blind study. “

Dr. Marcus Zervos, Head of the Infectious Diseases Division of the Henry Ford Health System, said in earlier interviews that hydroxychloroquine, used to treat malaria, lupus and rheumatoid arthritis, works in several ways. It seems to be.

He said it appears to reduce the amount of virus in the body and affect the immune system’s response to COVID-19, which can prevent some of the virus’s immune-related complications.

As part of the trial, participants “take eight tablets a week for eight weeks,” Dagan said. “Some people receive a placebo. Some people receive different doses, and in four to eight weeks, they have very good ideas about whether this works.

“We will fight the coronavirus for at least the next few months. We need tools to fight back.”

The eight-week control trial will begin enrolling study participants by early next week, said Dr. O’Neill, a study sponsor Henry Ford interventional cardiologist. Patients who receive the drug take 200 milligrams daily for eight weeks.

Dr. Adnan Munkara, Executive Vice President and Chief Clinical Officer of Henry Ford, stated that COVID-19 had a major blow to the healthcare community and first responders.

“We’re embarking on a very needed study … the first responders and healthcare workers are really harmed,” Munkara said.

“We see them being exposed every day. Many of them are positive, some of you know, and unfortunately, Therefore, when the opportunity to see a study test was opened, … my partner or colleague … jumped at that time because I wanted to save exposed people .

“We want to make sure they are protected while healthcare professionals and first responders promise to take care of us.”

Currently, there is no cure and no cure for COVID-19 approved by the Food and Drug Administration, but Zervos uses off-label hydroxychloroquine in patients with Henry Ford hospitalized for coronavirus I said.

“There are data from both early studies and experience from Chinese colleagues who treated many patients to justify their use in treating patients with a disease hospitalized for coronavirus infection,” Zervos Said.

“The goal of treatment is to look at patients with pneumonia who have shortness of breath, worsening respiratory status, and treat with hydroxychloroquine to prevent complications from the progression of the infection and ultimately to intensive care units Arrive at the end of the ventilator.

“The goal of sicker patients is to be able to get them out of the ventilator faster and even be taken out of the hospital.”

O’Neill said there was evidence that hydroxychloroquine might also be protective.

“There was a report shortly after the virus hit China, and people were trying to figure out how to handle it,” O’Neill said. “There was one interesting report stating that people who were taking this drug hydroxychloroquine or plaquenil were a common treatment for lupus … if they were taking the drug, they would get infected. It wasn’t, so … the first proof. “

A small nonrandomized study in France also suggested that the drug could help prevent disease, as did another small randomized study in China.

“Thus, from a scientific perspective, it looks promising but not conclusive,” O’Neill said. “And we really need to know the answer, whether or not this medicine works.

“Thoroughly considered, it clearly demonstrates whether this drug will prevent healthcare professionals, first responders, and those at greatest risk of getting the disease.”

Many have expressed concern about using hydroxychloroquine to treat coronavirus, but O’Neill said that the trial would not affect the availability of pharmacies in lupus and arthritis patients. Stated.

Contact Kristen Jordan Shams, a free press health reporter: 313-222-5997 or kshamus@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @kristenshamus.

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