HealthDay Reports: CDC Removes Prescribing Guidelines for Antimalarial Drugs
There's been a lot of talk recently about hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine — two drugs used to treat and prevent malaria — and how they might help treat COVID-19.
CDC Removes Prescribing Guidelines for Antimalarial Drugs
WEDNESDAY, April 8, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Guidelines for doctors on how to prescribe two antimalarial drugs that some believe may treat the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) are no longer available on the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website.
The updated CDC guidance on hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine that was published Tuesday is now shorter than the previous version and no longer provides dosage information about the drugs.
The drugs have not been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat COVID-19, but on Saturday, the FDA issued an emergency use authorization to distribute the two drugs from the national stockpile to treat hospitalized COVID-19 patients, CNN reported. Clinical trials are being conducted to assess the drugs as treatments for COVID-19, according to the CDC.