Bahrain claims success with anti-malarial drug used on coronavirus patients
Bahrain says that hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malaria drug promoted by US President Donald Trump to treat COVID-19, was successful in treating coronavirus patients.
The much-touted anti-malarial drug seen as a possible treatment for coronavirus has been used successfully in Bahrain, a top health official said Tuesday.
Bahrain, according to the state-run Bahrain News Agency, is one of the first countries to use the decades-old malaria drug known as hydroxychloroquine to treat coronavirus patients. The agency quotes Lt. Gen. Dr. Shaikh Mohammed bin Abdullah Al Khalifa, the head of the Bahrain’s coronavirus task force, who said hydroxychloroquine had been effective in “alleviating the symptoms of the virus and reducing its complications.”
Doctors in Bahrain first used hydroxychloroquine, which is also a treatment for lupus and acute or chronic rheumatoid arthritis, on Feb. 26, Khalifa said.
The jury is still out on whether the experimental drug is an effective treatment for coronavirus. In France, the anti-malarial was used in combination with azithromycin, an antibiotic typically prescribed for bacterial pneumonia, to treat some two dozen patients in Marseille.
