india

Updated: Apr 25, 2020 17:16 IST

Hours after the US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) warning on Friday against rampant use of hydroxychloroquine outside hospitals to treat coronavirus, a Kolkata-based NGO wrote to the Union health ministry and the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) asking them to alert doctors and citizens about the side effects of the anti-malarial drug.

Earlier this month the same NGO, People for Better Treatment (PBT), had moved the Supreme Court and had filed PIL against the centre for using hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) and azithromycin (AZM) on critically ill Covid-19 patients.

“In view of the serious warnings issued by the FDA, I request you to take imminent steps to alert all doctors and healthcare workers as well as ordinary citizens of India about the lack of effectiveness and threat to life associated with the use of HCQ and AZM in Covid-19 patients,” Dr Kunal Saha, a US-based doctor and president of PBT wrote in a letter to the Union health minister and director of ICMR.

US President Donald Trump has been saying that HCQ could be a game-changer in the fight against coronavirus, even though the drug’s efficacy remained scientifically unproven.

The NGO said that it had submitted several urgent appeals to the Union health ministry earlier but the latter had remained silent. It also warned to bring the issue to the notice of the apex court.

“The ministry must share responsibility for causing harm or death of any Covid-19 patient due to the ‘off-label’ use of HCQ and AZM despite the FDA warnings. Unless you take immediate and meaningful measures for protection of hapless Covid-19 patients, we will be compelled to bring this burning issue to the notice of the apex court when the pending PIL comes up for hearing,” the letter to the Union health ministry and ICMR said.

The ICMR had said that abdominal pain and nausea have been observed as some side effects in healthcare workers. HT had reported that a study was conducted in India to look at the prophylactic (preventive) effects of HCQ against the viral disease.

“Rampant use of the drug or using them in terminally ill and critically ill patients should not be done. HCQ should only be given to moderately ill patients as a therapeutic drug and to health care workers as a prophylactic drug,” said Dr Sukumar Mukherjee, a medical expert in the advisory body set up by Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee.