Medical and health associations in Ontario issued a warning Saturday as the province — and country — see a surge in the prescription of two drugs that appear to be circulating as treatments for COVID-19 despite both a “serious lack of evidence” that they work and significant potential side-effects.

“Pharmacists across Ontario and across the entire country have reported significant growth in the number of prescriptions being issued for one or a combination of these two products,” says a joint statement from the Ontario Medical Association, Ontario Pharmacists Association and Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario.

The prescriptions in question involve a combination of two medications, hydroxychloroquine sulfate (brand name Plaquenil) and azithromycin (brand name Zithromax). The first is often used to treat rheumatoid arthritis, lupus and acute malaria attacks, while the latter is prescribed for the treatment of mild to moderate infections caused by pharyngitis, tonsillitis and community-acquired pneumonia among others.

“With our collective memberships of more than 110,000 strong, Ontario’s doctors, nurses and nurse practitioners and pharmacists, we have an obligation and duty to educate our patients that any treatment — particularly for COVID-19 — needs to be evidence-based,” reads the statement, warning of the serious lack of evidence that supports the widespread use of the medications and significant potential side effects.

Last week, U.S. President Donald Trump called the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine a “game-changer” in fighting the new coronavirus. But medical associations say it is not evidence-based.

The side effects of using both medications unchecked could also have adverse effects including cardiac arrhythmias, which can be especially dangerous for patients with chronic medical conditions such as hepatic disease or renal failure.

The widespread prescriptions and dispensing of the drugs has created a shortage across Canadian , specifically a serious shortage of hydroxychloroquine sulfate and even an outage in some brands. This could lead to serious challenges for long-term treatment and care of rheumatoid arthritis and lupus patients.

“Physicians, nurses, nurse practitioners and pharmacists alike are all hopeful for an end to the deadly COVID-19 pandemic, and we are collectively confident that effective treatments will emerge soon, But, as evidence-based clinicians, we must be diligent in our efforts not to let blind hope drive our decisions,” says the statement. “As more studies are conducted in this area and evidence emerges, it is also important that clinicians judiciously prescribe and dispense medications to ensure patients who require therapy continue to have access.”

With files from the Associated Press.

Raneem Alozzi is a breaking news reporter, working out of the Star's radio room in Toronto. Follow her on Twitter: @r_alozzi

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