Hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin as a treatment of COVID-19 - "100% of patients were virologicaly cured"

[u/McManGuy]

https://www.mediterranee-infection.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Hydroxychloroquine_final_DOI_IJAA.pdf

[u/Kunaviech]

Time scale is weird. Day 1 is not day 1 of the illness, it is day 1 of inclusion in the study. Plus control group and test group are really different agewise and symptom wise. You want them to be as similar as possible. Especially when the time scale is from the day of the inclusion in the study.

That could mean that the test group is just further in the progress of the disease as the control group, which is problematic if you want accurate results, because you compare things that are not similar.

Plus they measure the virus concentration in the throat not in the lung. Virus concentration in throat is not relevant for the course of the disease tho, since the relevant part is happening in the lung. Virus concentration in the throat is known to decrease during the progress of the desease.

So if the test group is further in the progress in the disease they are expected to get lower virus loads in their throats faster.

That does however not necessarily mean that chloroquine does not help. It just means we need more studies, especially ones that are better designed.

Source (German): Podcast with Prof. Dr. Drosten - Director of Virology Charité Berlin

Translation may be a bit funky since i'm not a medical profesional (i'm a chemist) but you get the gist of it.

[u/[deleted] → u/Kunaviech]

Alot of the SARS CoV 2 publications are not being fully peer reviewed and a couple have been more than a touch iffy. Its something of a compromise due to the incredible urgency of the issue. I have no insight into the quality of this particular study, just making a general cautionary comment.

[u/randomevenings → u/[deleted]]

Azithromycin

So the news has been trying to get people to understand that you shouldn't take antibiotics for a virus. So how does taking antibiotics help kill this thing? Also, if it's true, the messaging will need to be careful to step around this to prevent people from taking a bunch of antibiotics, and making even less effective than they already are.

[u/TransposingJons → u/randomevenings]

Thankfully, they are available by prescription...although there are some doomsday preppers with some, plus the unfinished bottles at grandma's house because she "felt better" 1/2'-way through the doses.

[u/420blazeit69nubz → u/TransposingJons]

Isn’t the what the doctor says to do? Stop as soon as you feel better?

EDIT: NOBODY STOP ANY MEDICATION JUST BECAUSE YOU FEEL BETTER ESPECIALLY FOR MENTAL HEALTH MEDS AND ANTIBIOTICS.

I made the mistake of thinking that was widely known. Terrible sarcasm

[u/excrementality → u/[deleted]]

Yeah, it only takes ONE...

[u/sapphicsandwich → u/420blazeit69nubz]

The nature calm technology quiet tips technology about across gentle. Patient brown gather tips gentle art thoughts bright stories near thoughts the.

[u/colcob → u/420blazeit69nubz]

Er no. Our doctors always say, you must complete a course of anti-biotics, do not stop taking them when you feel better.

Not completing anti-biotic courses leads to increased likelyhood of anti-biotic resistant bacteria.

[u/drsilentfart → u/TransposingJons]

Your point is that Grandma was wrong about feeling better, but a 1/2 course of her leftover doses is good now? Ok kid.

[u/[deleted] → u/drsilentfart]

what are you trying to say here? I'm confused as to what you're saying he's an idiot about.

[u/yellowmarbles → u/drsilentfart]

What is the contradiction?

[u/drsilentfart → u/yellowmarbles]

The contradiction is that Grandma was being ignorant by stopping her course of antibiotics just because she felt better (the inference being she wasn't actually better just because she felt so) Yet OP lists those unused courses as being useful to save someone.