Florida Doctor Says Combo Drug Effective

From the Florida Phoenix: By Issac Morgan - April 8, 2020

Gov. Ron DeSantis has ordered more of the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine backed by President Donald Trump to treat coronavirus patients in Florida and azithromycin, also referred to as Z-Pack.

Azithromycin is oftentimes used to treat bacterial infections and sexually transmitted diseases, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

At Tuesday’s COVID-19 response meeting at the Capitol in Tallahassee, Gov. Ron DeSantis brought on a physician from Broward County who said the drug combination “seems to be working.”

“It seems to be helping very much,” Dr. Sunil Kumar, a Broward County doctor, said via video call. “We are trying all different modalities, so that it’s not just the medication alone.”

“One of the things that physicians have been using is this hydroxychloroquine, usually combined with the Z-Pack,” DeSantis said. Both drugs have been sent to hospitals across Florida, DeSantis said.

“I’ve reached out to physicians…and asked ‘should we get more of it?’ We want to obviously give patients all the opportunities to have a recovery.”

Kumar explained the treatment regimen for hospital patients in Broward with COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the new coronavirus.

“In the initial stage we started using a combination of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin, or [referred to as] Z-Pack… but we started to treat all patients diagnosed with COVID-19 admitted in the hospital,” Kumar said.

“But I had to be very careful…that’s a medication that’s been used for a long time, it’s being tested, but we are not sure whether it will work.”

Kumar also said that they “are using several other therapies” including a technique used by doctors where patients lay on their back for six hours and then on their stomach for the rest of the day.

This story was originally published by the Florida Phoenix. For more stories from the Florida Phoenix, visit FloridaPhoenix.com.