Brazil recommends hydroxychloroquine for children, pregnant women despite FDA's caution

Just after US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) revoked the emergency use of hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19 patients, Brazil said that they will now recommend the use of the anti-malarial drug to not only treat children but also pregnant women for early treatment of COVID-19. According to media reports, the Brazilian health ministry held a press conference in Brasilia a few hours after FDA said it is “not advisable” to use hydroxychloroquine for the patients infected with the novel coronavirus and cited a latest scientific research. 

Hydroxychloroquine is one of the most touted treatments by US President Donald Trump who not only called “Gift of God” but last month he revealed completing a dose of the drug as a precaution from the COVID-19. Despite the concerns raised by health professions, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro had also said that he has kept a box full of the anti-malarial drug at home for his mother. The drug had emerged as the hope for COVID-19 treatment when someone of the patients in New York hospital had shown positive results. However, since then, multiple studies have claimed that the drug has been causing more deaths among the people infected with the coronavirus. 

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Drug proves beneficial in Brazil, says minister

Despite the controversial history of hydroxychloroquine, Brazilian Health Ministry official Mayra Pinheiro said in the press conference that the studies which have been cited by the US FDA ‘cannot be used as examples for Brazil or for the rest of the world’. Claiming that the government’s responsibility is to protect lives in the country by the medication such as the anti-malarial drug that has ‘proven clinical evidence to work’ and has shown positive results among varied circumstances in the largest Latin American nation. 

Meanwhile, in a contrasting statement posted by Bolsonaro on Twitter on June 17, he said that FDA’s withdrawal of ‘emergency hospital use’ status of hydroxychloroquine actually “expands the treatment” with the same drug. He added that revoking that status will enable the medical professionals to use the drug as long as it is prescribed. However, FDA had said in its official statement that “We made this determination based on recent results from a large, randomized clinical trial in hospitalized patients that found these medicines showed no benefit for decreasing the likelihood of death or speeding recovery.”

Brazilian President, “Contrary to what the Brazilian media reported, the withdrawal of the status of "emergency hospital use" by the FDA actually EXPANDS the treatment with hydroxychloroquine in the USA, allowing the use of the drug, previously restricted, in any environment, as long as prescribed by a doctor.” 

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