Top Doctors Join Pennacchio’s Call to Use Hydroxychloroquine to Combat Spread of COVID-19
| Top Doctors Join Pennacchio’s Call to Use Hydroxychloroquine to Combat Spread of COVID-19
A recent French peer review study by renowned infectious disease specialist Dr. Didier Raoult which was published in the International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents showed promising results in the treatment of COVID-19 with Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ). The French study also showed a significant decrease in “viral shedding,” from patients treated with HCQ. The lower the shedding, the less likelihood that the virus can be communicated to other individuals. As the medical profession evaluates different treatment options, public health officials should adopt early treatment measures with the existing tools at our disposal. HCQ is an inexpensive, safe drug that has been used in the treatment of malaria for seventy years. With no vaccine or antiviral in place, HCQ is the lead candidate for early treatment against the COVID-19 virus. This was the conclusion of a recent medical paper written by Dr. Raymond Chang whose affiliations include the Institute of East-West Medicine in New York and the National Taiwan University Hospital in Taiwan. HCQ has the ability to prevent the virus from entering the cell, as well as to prevent the virus from replicating. HCQ has the unique factor of being able to accumulate high concentrations in the lungs (specifically where it is needed). What is also appealing is the long duration (22 day half-life) of HCQ in the body. These factors make it promising for early treatment if ingested days before the virus is introduced. Worldwide reaction to the virus has been one of containment through isolation and social distancing. The objective of early treatment is to decrease the time of isolation and social distancing. The longer the isolation the more devastating the effects on our lives. A nationwide program of early treatment with HCQ, along with concurrent isolation may reap exponential benefits. The existing record of HCQ, its promise of efficacy in the treatment of COVID-19 and low costs make the risk to benefit ratio well worth the effort. Federal and State governments should immediately direct public policy towards increasing production, storage and establishing a distribution protocol and regimen for HCQ to ameliorate the spread of the COVID-19 virus. This was the conclusion reached by U.S. academic studies in response to French infectious disease specialist Dr. Raoult’s peer review study, saying HCQ has a strong potential as a prophylactic measure against the severity of COVID-19. We the undersigned agree with New Jersey State Senator Joe Pennacchio that all levels of government should work together to ameliorate the COVID-19 pandemic by developing an early treatment to minimize the effects of the virus and reduce its communicability by decreasing viral shedding with the use of Hydroxychloroquine: Anika Ackerman MD Joseph Addeo MD Munir Ahmed MD Niran Al-Agba DO Frank Alario MD Sharon Carswell MD Kimberly Corba MD Doug Crane MD Madeline Danny DO Philip DeFina PhD Anthony Dippolito MD John Eck MD Josephine Feingold MD Ken Fisher MD Chris Garofalo MD David Gee MD Helen Gelhot MD Eric Gerwirtz MD Yvette Gozzo MD Karladine Graves DO Wayne Graves DO Lee Gross MD Avinash Gupta MD James Halper MD Scott Hardiman MD Kris Held MD Travis Hendricks MD Bindukumar Kansupada MD Cameron Knackstedt DO Herbert Kunkle, Jr MD Steve Kupferburg MD Lee Kurisko MD Guru Lamba MD Katarina Lindley DO Jennifer Lorine DO Lee Merritt MD Winslow Murdoch MD Katherine Newland MD Lisa Norberg DO Fred Notarnicola MD Sheila Page DO Kirit Kumar Pandya MD Prashant Parikh MD Philip Pattison MD Danae Powers MD Lee Pressler MD Samuel Putnam MD Raj Raval MD Luis Rodriguez Jr MD Scott Roethle MD Sohayla Rostami DO James Rowsey MD Christine Saba PharmD MD Vinod Sanchetti MD Nikki Silverstein MD Marilyn Singleton MD JD Pat Smith MD Reed Smith MD Douglas Spiel MD Joel Strom DDS James Thomas MD MBA Teresa Thomas MD Josh Umber MD Kip VanCamp DO Craig Wax DO Vicki Wooll MD MPH Marlene Wust-Smith MD |
