Viral drugs

Since the outbreak of Covid-19, many unscientific information has been spread. During this testing time traditional or herbal medications and approaches are viral on social media. This is causing unnecessary fear and panic among people. Now, there as been news of an anti-malarial drug being used as treatment of the coronavirus. In fact, for viral illness specially in case of Covid-19 cases only symptomatic treatment is effective. If a patient has some other medical issues, the line of treatment would be different. This depends on case to case.

It is worth mentioning that the US FDA has clarified use of the anti-malarial drug in such cases It is feared that people in the prevailing panic-like situation will start buying it as they have done in case of medical masks and hand sanitizers. Many will start using it as self medication. This will harm them and it will cause hoarding and shortage of this medicine. In case of acute shortage of this medicine many will be deprived of cheap treatment of malaria. This may cause deaths among fatal cases of cerebral malaria. Therefore, it should be clarified that this is not a drug of choice. People should always seek medical advice from a qualified medical practitioner, and avoid spreading such unauthentic claims of treatment.

Dr Alfred Charles

Karachi