(WSIL) -- Health experts say you shouldn't be taking hydroxychloroquine to try and treat COVID-19.
A says this year alone, physicians have written a half million prescriptions for hydroxychloroquine to treat or prevent COVID-19. But there's not much clarity if it actually does just that.
Updated evidence from that study says the risk for patients with immunocompromised health conditions who take hydroxychloroquine is still low.
Shawnee Health Care Family Physician, Jeff Ripperda, explained what it's normally used for.
"It's used most commonly for lupus. Essentially kind of turns down the immune system a little bit and it's also a treatment for certain forms of malaria," he said.
For those using it to treat or prevent COVID-19, Dr. Ripperda agrees with the study that it could actually bring fatal heart outcomes to the body.
"Research shows that it just doesn't work. Not only does it not work, it actually might even increase mortality rates, which means that people that have COVID and take hydroxychloroquine might actually have a higher chance of dying than they do by not taking the hydroxychloroquine. So at best it looks like an ineffective drug," he said.
Dr. Ripperda says it's still frustrating that there's not enough treatments for COVID-19 in its early stages and suggests taking monoclonal antibodies would currently be the safest option.
"Monoclonoal antibodies, is an IV-infusion that would give the high-risk people and basically is an antibody that directly attacks COVID. So up until the point that somebody is sick enough to be put on oxygen or needs to be hospitalized that is the only treatment that's been proven that it lowers risk of needing to be in the hospital and/or mortality," he said.
Dr. Ripperda says if your doctor is advising hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19, to just avoid it all together and find other healthier options.
