Nevada governor bans anti-malaria drugs for COVID-19 patients

Despite the world including India pinning the hope on anti-malaria drugs to treat serious COVID-19 patients, Nevadas governor has ordered to ban use of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine to treat new coronavirus patients.

The governor's executive order came after US President Donald Trump termed the drugs as a potential treatment for treating the illness, reports NYPost.

A man in US state of Phoenix died and his wife was in critical condition after taking "an additive used to clean fish tanks called chloroquine phosphate, similar to the drug used to treat malaria".

According to the governor, there was no consensus among experts or doctors in the US state that the drugs can treat people with the COVID-19 disease.

New York hospitals have federal permission to give critically-ill patients a cocktail of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin on a "compassionate care" basis.

Trump touted anti-malaria drug Hydroxychloroquine as a possible gamechanger in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic, with "very very encouraging results" in early testing.

Trump said in a White House briefing last week that he is directing the US Food and Drug Administration to fast track anti-viral therapies for treating patients with COVID-19.

The FDA, however, said it has not approved the anti-malaria drug yet to treat new coronavirus disease.

The National Task Force for Covid-19 constituted by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) this week recommended the use of anti-malaria drug hydroxy-chloroquine to treat the Covid-19 disease in high-risk cases. IANS