Mishustin allowed to use a dubious drug from China against COVID-19

Less than two days after Novye Izvestia made the publication about the information that the use of chloroquine as a treatment of coronavirus was recognized as deadly, and in Brazil, for example, the use of it was suspended due to the potentially fatal side effects, - the official information appeared that the Russian government has allowed the use of this antimalarial drug for the treatment of patients with coronavirus. Even despite international concerns about its safety and effectiveness.

On Thursday, an order was issued on the website of the Government of the Russian Federation authorizing the use of hydroxychloroquine for patients. And China has already delivered over 68,000 packs of tablets to Russia, just after Putin had a telephone conversation with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

This drug will be distributed to hospitals that treat patients with a suspected or suspected coronavirus test. The document also said that the safety and effectiveness of the drug will be monitored by state sanitary supervision.

As you know, hydroxychloroquine has been used for decades to treat malaria and is currently being tested worldwide against COVID-19 along with another anti-malarial drug, chloroquine.

Both of them have potentially serious side effects, especially at high doses or when administered with other drugs, and their use for the treatment of the virus is still experimental, since there have not been comprehensive clinical trials.

Hydroxychloroquine showed good results in the treatment of COVID-19 in several small studies in France and China, and Trump even advertised it as a panacea for coronavirus.

However, many scientists call for caution until wider trials show how safe and effective it is.

The European Medicines Agency has stated that both chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine should undergo clinical trials and should not be used to treat cases of the virus, unless there is a “state of emergency in the country,” Medical Express writes .

The scientific publication The Lancet noted a few days ago in its publication that although the US and French authorities have allowed the use of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, the EU regulator and WHO say that science does not support this decision:

“The FDA’s emergency use of these drugs in the US last week gives doctors the ability to prescribe medications recommended by President Donald Trump. However, both drugs have not been tested for COVID-19, and have rare but potentially fatal side effects. The decision went around the usual drug approval process, including double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trials, fueling global debate about whether drugs are suitable for treating the disease ... "

“I think that they resorted to this out of a sense of despair,” Joseph Mashi, director of one of the New York hospitals that treated patients with coronavirus, responded to this decision.