The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has removed guidance for doctors from its website on prescribing two controversial anti-malarial drugs to treat the coronavirus.
The CDC webpage, titled “Information for Clinicians on Therapeutic Options for Patients with COVID-19,” initially published key dosing information on the drugs hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine, based on unattributed anecdotes rather than peer-reviewed science, Reuters first reported.
“Although optimal dosing and duration of hydroxychloroquine for treatment of COVID-19 are unknown, some US clinicians have reported anecdotally different hydroxychloroquine dosing,” the page said, followed by some of those dosages.
The page was updated, and shortened, Tuesday to say, “hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine are under investigation in clinical trials for pre-exposure or post-exposure prophylaxis of SARS-CoV-2 infection, and treatment of patients with mild, moderate, and severe COVID-19.”
“There are no drugs or other therapeutics approved by the US Food and Drug Administration to prevent or treat COVID-19,” the page also says. “Current clinical management includes infection prevention and control measures and supportive care, including supplemental oxygen and mechanical ventilatory support when indicated.”
The CDC did not immediately respond to a question from the Post about the reason for the removal.
Medical specialists told Reuters they were surprised by the original language.
“Why would CDC be publishing anecdotes?” asked Dr. Lynn Goldman, dean of the Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University. “That doesn’t make sense. This is very unusual.”
Experts also suggested that the original guidance might encourage doctors to prescribe the medications before it is established whether or not they are effective or harmful.
Jeffrey Flier, a former dean of Harvard Medical School, called the new version “substantially improved.”
“It states the facts without in effect recommending that physicians prescribe the drugs despite a lack of adequate evidence,” he said.
Hydroxychloroquine is likely to be safe for 90 percent of the population, but it could pose potentially lethal risks to those susceptible to heart conditions, especially patients with chronic medical problems already on multiple medications, Dr. Michael Ackerman, a genetic cardiologist who is director of the Mayo Clinic’s Windland Smith Rice Genetic Heart Rhythm Clinic, told NBC News.
Late last month, Ackerman and his colleagues launched a cardiac algorithm, published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings, to help doctors safely prescribe the medication by determining which patients are most at-risk for drug-induced sudden cardiac death.
“What disturbed me the most was when I was seeing not political officials say these medications are safe — but seeing on the news cardiologists and infectious disease specialists say [hydroxychloroquine] is completely safe without even mentioning this rare side effect,” Ackerman told the network.
President Trump has touted the drugs as potential life-savers, and Gov. Andrew Cuomo has agreed to provide it to thousands of seriously ill patients in New York hospitals in combination with Zithromax.
With Post wires
