Don’t take chloroquine to prevent COVID-19
Chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, a closely related drug, might help treat COVID-19, but these drugs can be lethal when taken incorrectly. (Pixabay/)As COVID-19 sweeps across North America and hospitals prepare for an influx of patients, researchers are working to figure out if any drugs currently on the market can be used to combat the illness. They’ve identified a number of candidates, including chloroquine, the drug that President Trump incorrectly said had been approved by the FDA as a COVID-19 treatment. But there’s nowhere near enough evidence yet to indicate any of these drugs, including chloroquine, are actually helpful in treating this new virus.Chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, a closely related drug, “seem to suppress the growth of coronavirus in laboratory studies—in test tubes, so to speak,” says David Juurlink, the head of clinical pharmacology and toxicology at the Sunnybrook Health Sciences Center in Toronto, Canada. “Whether or not they do anything of value...