Pres. Donald Trump
(Photo : Reuters Connect)

President Donald Trump admits that he has been taking the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine, according to a recently published article. 

What is Hydroxychloroquine?

Hydroxychloroquine is a medicine popularly known to treat people with malaria, a disease that enters the body through mosquito bites. This is a disease is commonly found in people living in Africa, South America, and Southern Asia. 

The drug has been in the different news outlets since March this year because many claims that it has the potential to cure COVID-19, while others also insisted that the claim is not yet scientifically proven could pose risk and danger to a person's health.

Additionally, the U.S. Food and Drugs Administration has authorized the use of hydroxychloroquine for adults and adolescents weighing at least 110 pounds and are hospitalized due to COVID-19 only for emergency purposes but does not approve to use this to treat the virus.

Using this without the prescription or advice from physicians or doctors is extremely dangerous. It could damage the retina, cause low blood cell counts, low blood sugar, unusual mood changes, yellowing of eyes, seizure, and more.

Pres. Trump Admits That He Has Been Taking Hydroxychloroquine

Pres. Trump announced on Monday that he has been taking the pills every day for almost a week and a half to prevent getting the infectious and deadly COVID-19. It can be recounted that the President touted the medicine as a cure for the virus last month.

During a roundtable with the restaurant, leaders in the White House, he said: "I'm taking it - hydroxychloroquine. I think it's good. I've heard a lot of good stories. And, if it's not good, I'll tell you right, I'm not going to get hurt by it" acocording to a report.

Pres. Trump also said that he consulted Dr. Sean Conley, the White House Physician, before taking the drug. In a separate interview with Dr. Conley, he said: "After numerous discussions he and I had about regarding the evidence for and against the use of hydroxychloroquine, we concluded the potential benefit from treatment outweighed the relative risks."

Meanwhile, the use of this drug to treat COVID-19 is still subject for debate and recent analysis shows that the use of the drug for COVID-19 patients in U.S. veterans' hospitals has found no evidence of treating the patients, instead there was high mortality rate for those who were given with the drug compared to standard care.

Pres. Trump was influenced to use the publicly endorsed to the drug because of the study in France where 40 COVID-19 patients were treated using the hydroxychloroquine and more than half of the patients have experienced improvements in their airways within three to six days. 

However, experts including Dr. Anthony Fauci have warned that that the study is relatively too small to come up with a major generalization that the virus is indeed helpful in treating the virus. Olivier Veran, France's Health Minister, that it should not be used by anyone except only of "serious forms of hospitalization and on the collegial decision of doctors and under strict medical supervision." 

Read related articles: