Man dies after self-medicating with chloroquine phosphate to treat coronavirus
A man died in Phoenix after self-medicating with chloroquine phosphate to treat covid-19, Banner Health announced in a statement Monday.
The man’s wife, who also self-medicated with chloroquine phosphate, is in critical care, according to Banner Health. The man was in his 60s, as is his wife. Banner Health did not identify either of them by name.
This came just two days after President Trump suggested, in a tweet, that a mix of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin could be an effective treatment for covid-19. Neither drug had been approved by the Food and Drug Administration or World Health Organization as a treatment for the coronavirus, and has not been in the time since.
“Given the uncertainty around COVID-19, we understand that people are trying to find new ways to prevent or treat this virus, but self-medicating is not the way to do so,” Daniel Brooks, medical director of Banner Health’s Poison and Drug Information Center, said in the statement.
“The last thing that we want right now is to inundate our emergency departments with patients who believe they found a vague and risky solution that could potentially jeopardize their health.”
Banner Health urged that chloroquine, a drug used to treat malaria, “should not be ingested to treat or prevent” the virus.
On Saturday, after Trump endorsed hydroxychloroquine on Twitter, Nigeria reported two cases of chloroquine poisoning. That led Nigerian health officials to issue a warning against using the drug to treat the coronavirus, which was echoed by Banner Health after a related death.
