DoctorOz: Antimalarial Drug Breakthrough Could Be Saving Lives

Yesterday, I put my money where my mouth is, funding a research study on the drug protocol that has shown some promise out of France. You heard directly from the researcher here exclusively yesterday. But in order for my hospital, New York, Presbyterian Columbia, and research institutions everywhere to be able to evaluate the efficacy of the anti-malarial drug hydroxyquinolone and the Z-Pak combination treatment, we need more drugs available. In the meantime, I've been speaking with the task force and appreciate the challenges, but the federal government must get us these pills so doctors can use them when desired for the right patients. Now, you're about to hear directly from COVID-19 patients who say they were given the drug combo or just the hydroxyquinolone. But first, here's the latest. As the coronavirus pandemic accelerates, the U.S. Surgeon General issues a stark warning. I want America to understand, this week, it's going to get bad. With over 350,000 sickened around the globe and over 40,000 here in the U.S., health experts say self-isolation is key. But pictures of people continuing to congregate beg the question, are we taking the pandemic seriously? State and local leaders are turning to the airwaves to beg for supplies. This is just an impossible situation to manage if we don't get the equipment. In the midst of efforts to push forth a stimulus bill, Senator Amy Klobuchar says that her husband has tested positive for coronavirus. And Olympic officials make the unprecedented call, moving the Tokyo Games to 2021. Meanwhile, a glimmer of hope. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced his state will begin testing two new coronavirus treatments, the drugs hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malaria drug, and azithromycin, an antibiotic commonly known as Z-Pak, for promising results in a small study conducted in France. On Monday, the leader of that study, Dr. Didier Raoult, exclusively spoke to America for the first time, right here on our show. Were there differences in pneumonia and hospitalization rates and recovery times? We specifically are looking on this, so I expect next week we get the papers that report the clinical effects. Are you optimistic that you show clinical benefits? Oh, very, very optimistic. And actor Daniel Dae Kim threw his support behind the drug combo, calling it the secret weapon in his coronavirus recovery. And after that stunning interview yesterday, more breaking news. After the French study, the world is now revisiting the promise of this new therapy. In China, there are reports from astute doctors at one hospital that they noticed no patients coming into the facility suffered from lupus. And none of the lupus patients who came to that hospital had COVID-19. One big difference, lupus patients used the drug hydroxychloroquine. Now, Remnant Hospital in Wuhan University reportedly did a study where they gave that drug to 20 patients over two weeks. And all 20 patients had improvement of their symptoms within two days. And 19 out of 20 had less disease show up in their CT scans of their lungs. Now, we're working to confirm this in other pilot studies. If reports are accurate, it helps to confirm beliefs in Dr. Raoult's work from France. But let me be clear, this drug has not yet been approved for coronavirus. And no one should be using the word cure. But it is being used by U.S. doctors to treat some coronavirus patients. And I, like you, want to hear from the patients themselves for their vital instincts. Let's get started. Rio is joining us from his hospital room in Hollywood, Florida. He was just given the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine. So, Rio, when did you get diagnosed with COVID-19 and how bad did your symptoms get? On Thursday afternoon, I was diagnosed with pneumonia and the COVID-19. Things didn't get really bad until Friday. I had already been in my home for six days with a fever and cough and all the rest of it. I was trying to feed it at home. It got too bad, and I came to the hospital to be tested. They were offering tests out front. When I was walking up to the ER, unfortunately, I started getting really faint, and they took me in the ER immediately. And two days later, I was diagnosed with having COVID. Friday night is pretty much the culmination of when it got really bad for me. It was very tough for me to breathe and talk. And I threw a friend who had started a prayer line on Facebook. Someone called me and said, hey, you need to try this. And I asked the doctors about it, and obviously, at that point, they couldn't authorize it. So they got in touch with an infectious disease doctor who, at that point, after hearing my About 30 minutes later, they gave it to me. That was 6.30 on Friday night. And by 4.45 in the morning, I woke up with no fever, no symptoms. And I felt great since, and they've kept me here for observation probably until tomorrow to make sure. But, you know, by no means can I say I'm cured, because I don't know that. But I can tell you that I don't feel anything anymore. So just so I'm clear, I understand things got so bad, you actually said goodbye to your wife and family. So if you can, take me back to that moment when you thought you'd never see your family again. What did you say to them? Well, you know, I was here, and in the morning, it started feeling, my chest started getting real tight, and it was getting tough. By the afternoon, I decided to call some friends and family to, in my way, say goodbye. I didn't outright tell my family that I thought I was going to die, because I didn't want to scare them. But I, in my own way, was talking to them, and kind of saying things I needed to say to them, without saying, you know, scaring them to death. And my friends, and I really just didn't think I was going to see them in the morning. I mean, I thought the inevitability was there. I'd never felt that way before. Oh my goodness. So you get this note from the prayer group. When you shared it with your doctor, how did they explain the risks? How did they explain to you that, you know, it might not work, because we didn't have enough information? Yeah, I mean, they were very clear about that. The infectious disease doctor, he told me, listen, he goes, there's no trials, there's no studies, there's no way we can say this is going to help you, and it could possibly hurt you. He says, we don't know. My response to him was, I don't think I'm going to be here in the morning, so I'm going to try it. And he accommodated me once I, you know, he heard my story. So over that, you know, 10-hour period you're describing when you got better, you know, when you woke up at four in the morning, were you surprised? What did you think was going on? Yeah, Dr. Riles, I'll tell you, when I woke up, I looked at the clock, it was 4.45, it just came to my head. I looked in my room, and it was a mess, because I had come in the night before, so I had some complications. I thought, wow, what a mess, and I thought to myself, wait a minute, I feel better, I can breathe. That was the biggest shock, because, like, the night before, I was gasping. So when I could breathe, and then you start doing inventory of yourself, and I'm like, wait a minute, my fever's gone. And that's the first day, first time in nine days I didn't have a fever, and I haven't had one since. So to me, it was a great relief, and when I called the nurse's station, you know, and I told them I felt fine, they were like, what? I'm like, yeah. So the nurse came in and took all my vitals, and sure enough, there was no fever, all my vitals were where they should be. So for me, it was a defining moment, I mean, there was no ifs, ands, or doubts, I didn't know exactly what time I felt better. Rio, you've probably talked to your doctors, your nurses, about your recovery. Are they impressed, are they surprised, and are they using these medications for other patients, as far as you know? I can tell you that, you know, they're very monotone about it. No one's given direct credit to any one thing that caused it. They're being cautious, and as they should be, I guess, and, you know, they quickly pointed out that, you know, this could have been coincidental, but to me, it was very definitive to me. I'm no doctor, I'm no scientist, but I'm telling you that if I hadn't have asked for it, I don't think I'd be here. Whoa, that's a pretty firm endorsement. Next time your doctors are in there, I'm just curious, you might want to ask them if they're going to try this protocol on other patients. I'm curious if there's any questions being raised in their mind. It's my belief that this is being used on other patients. Oh, well, then maybe you've already had an impact. Well, listen, thank you very much for joining us, I'm glad you're doing better, and I hope you continue to recover. Thank you, Dr. Ross. Next, we're going to Missouri, where we're joined now by Dr. Greg Mundus, an orthopedic spine surgeon whose parents are both hospitalized with COVID-19. Greg says his 69-year-old father was told a week ago he probably wasn't going to survive COVID-19. He was given hydroxychloroquine, along with different IV antibiotics. So, Greg, how have things changed since your dad was put on hydroxychloroquine? Well, he was basically on death's door for the first couple of days in the ICU. They gave him a very low survival chance, and about two days into his stay in the ICU, they put him on the medicine, and he's taken a significant turn for the better, and it looks like he's going to make it. Oh, thank goodness. So, I know you're a physician, and I understand your dad was told that if he continues to improve, he could leave the hospital pretty quickly. Are you surprised at what's going on with him since taking that medication, and do you think it's because he was put on the hydroxychloroquine? Well, it certainly was a piece of it, no question about it. I think the fact that he got it a little bit later in the disease process makes it a little bit not so clear-cut. He was on a ventilator, his kidneys failed, had to go on dialysis, so a little bit of a muddy picture, I'd say, not quite as clean as if we had caught it earlier and put him on the drug earlier. Now, your 68-year-old mom, Sandra, is also sick, and she's actually a little bit higher risk, and her doses for the hydroxychloroquine have to be adjusted. Can you explain what went down with her? Well, yeah, so she developed symptoms on Wednesday, and they took her to the ER and worked her up and sent her home on the hydroxychloroquine, but they put her on the 600-milligram loading dose on the first day, and she ended up having an EKG change, which is consistent with that medication, so she had to come back in and make a dose adjustment before she could stay on it. And is she doing okay on the medication? Otherwise, do you think it affected her course? Oh, I'm pretty convinced it's going to have a very substantial effect on her course. So she just finished three days in the hospital. She's actually being discharged home as we speak, and I think for her it's going to have a huge impact because she has chronic lung disease and diabetes, so she's the patient that really needs the drug early to avoid the effects of the disease later. So Greg, as a physician, let me ask you the ultimate question. If you were diagnosed with COVID-19 virus, would you treat yourself with hydroxychloroquine? I would actually add azithromycin to it as well. It looks like the data out of France is supporting that combination, and yeah, without question. My mom got on it even the day before she had the official reading positive, and largely because we were pushing for it pretty hard on my end. Well, listen, thank you very much. I appreciate you sharing your story, and I wish your parents well. They've got a great son. Thank you. All right. Appreciate it. We're joined now via Zoom by Margaret. She's a nurse in New Jersey who is still hospitalized recovering from coronavirus. So Margaret, how sick did you get? I was sheltering in place at home for about eight days with a cough and a fever, and on day eight I went to an urgent care with a higher fever, and my cough was worse, and But the next day I ended up in the emergency room with a fever of 104 and difficulty breathing. So how did things change after you were put on the hydroxychloroquine and the azithromycin? Because you were put on both medications. I was put on both. About 30 minutes after the positive test result came in, the nurse ran in with the Plaquenil and shortly thereafter, they started bringing other medications in, including the azithromycin. My condition improved by the next day that my cough was improved, my shortness of breath was better, and my fever went away. The fever wasn't going away with the IV, the antibiotics, with the pneumonia. Were you surprised that these already existing drugs could be so beneficial? I mean, you're a nurse. You know the field a bit. I wasn't surprised. I understand. I actually had some experience a few years back with a family member who was ill, and some of the older medications were the more helpful medications. Did you have any side effects, Margaret, from the pills? Just a little. A little bit of DI. Nothing that I can't tolerate. And my cheeks got really red. Margaret, thank you, and I hope you continue to feel better. So I want to remind everyone not to hoard these drugs. That's really important. These are the most effective tool right now in the hands of doctors and researchers who need to give them to the patients who need them the most. We need to measure the effects. We need the pills. So don't hoard them. When we come back, a health inspector shares the dos and don'ts of disinfecting your home. Breaking news. As the coronavirus pandemic continues, we have the latest details on how to keep you safe, what you need to know today, and how it will affect you tomorrow. Medical updates that will cut through the confusion, answering your questions, giving you all the facts and information you can depend on. The Dr. Oz Show, your trusted coronavirus headquarters. Be sure to subscribe to my channel so you don't miss anything. And remember to check back often to see what's new.