JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A team of researchers said nearly 70 drugs might be effective in treating coronavirus. Some of the medications are already being used to treat other diseases.
One, Chloroquine, was heavily talked about last week during a coronavirus task force briefing. It’s used to treat malaria and some other conditions.
President Donald Trump called it a game-changer, but the nation’s top infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci gave a swift warning saying the evidence the president was talking about is anecdotal evidence.
News4Jax talked exclusively with a local doctor who says he successfully treated a COVID-19 patient using a similar drug called Plaquenil.
Dr. Danny Pulido, a pulmonary & critical care specialist at Baptist Medical Center Beaches, posted a story to his Facebook page this weekend and so far it’s been shared more than 6,000 times.
Pulido explained a seemingly healthy patient in his late 60s came into the hospital with an acute respiratory illness. His lungs had little inflammation but over the next few days, the inflammation spread rapidly and his need for oxygen went up to 100%.
Pulido said even though the coronavirus test had not come back, he knew this patient needed help fast.
“He did not have the risk factors. He didn’t have the blood test that was consistent with COVID and no other risk factors that pointed to COVID," Pulido said. “What I took from this, you have to look at all aspects of the patient care and decide whether you’re going to treat or not to treat based on what you have. So with that CAT scan, we decided to put that patient on a regimen.”
Pulido said there are many other protocols out there that could be effective to treat coronavirus and that doctors around the world are communicating and working to develop best practices.
As for his patient, Pulido said he’s doing better and that he’s almost breathing without oxygen and should be out of the hospital soon.