India's nodal government agency ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research) is now following the World Health Organization (WHO) advice to prevent the use of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) in the treatment of COVID-19 patients by the Union Health Ministry amid lockdown and corona crisis. The ICMR has written a letter to the WHO citing differences in dosage standards between Indian and international tests. Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) drug, which is being used by many countries around the world to help treat COVID-19 patients.
According to the protocol prescribed by the Government of India for the treatment of severe coronavirus patients in ICU, HCQ doses are given as follows - a heavy dose of 400 mg HCQ in the morning and 1 in the night, followed by 200 mg for the next four days, HCQ one in the morning and one at night. The total dose is given to a patient in 5 days, the total amount of which is 2400 mg. Also, a Health Ministry official explained the context behind disagreeing with the ICMR and the WHO's assessment of the Ministry of Health that there is a wide difference in dosage levels in India and internationally. The official said that COVID-19 patients are being dosed in this way in an internationally ongoing trial - 800 mg x 2 loading dose for 6 hours in addition to 400 mg x 2 doses per day for 10 days. The total dose given to a patient in 11 days is 9600 mg, which is four times the dose given to patients in India.
The officer said that this indicates that the efficacy of HCQ in our treatment protocol is good and they are recovering quickly with small doses of its dose to patients. The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has written a letter to the WHO regarding this. A letter has been written to Dr Sheela Godbole, National Coordinator of WHO-India Solidarity Trial and head of the Department of Epidemiology, ICMR-National AIDS Research Institute Dr Soumya Swaminathan, Chief Scientist of the World Health Organization.
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