Hospitals are seeing early success giving hydroxychloroquine to patients with COVID-19. Now, Henry Ford Health System wants to see if the drug can prevent the virus.

The health system and the city of Detroit are launching the first research trial in the nation in which healthy people are given hydroxychloroquine. It plans to enroll 3,000 first responders and health care workers from southeast Michigan in the eight-week trial.

The goal is to see if the drug can prevent or weaken COVID-19, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan said.

"In Detroit, we don't normally take things lying down. We fight back," Duggan said. "If this study works out, we'll save the lives of first responders around the world."

Enrollment is voluntary for any first responders or health care workers in southeast Michigan who don't have COVID-19 or related symptoms. The hope is to start signing people up by next Monday or Tuesday, study organizer and Henry Ford interventional cardiologist Dr. William W. O’Neill said.

Plans for the study started just 10 days ago, and it's been fast-tracked through the Henry Ford Health System and FDA – and is close to FDA approval, O'Neill said.

Hydroxychloroquine has been used for 75 years, and is used to prevent and treat malaria and help patients with conditions like arthritis and lupus. The drug will come from a new shipment or from a reserve, O’Neill said, so it won’t affect the supply of the drug for people using it for non-COVID reasons.

Side effects include stomach pain, nausea, vomiting, and headache.

The FDA has approved emergency use of the drug, but the state of Michigan has warned against stockpiling it. Some Detroit hospitals, including Henry Ford and Beaumont, have been using it on COVID-19 patients.

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Some of the 3,000 participants will get daily 200-milligram doses of the drug, some will get weekly doses and some will receive placebo sugar pills. It's a double-blind, random trial, meaning neither the patients or researchers know who's getting the actual drug.

The drug trial is not the only area where Detroit is breaking ground during the coronavirus pandemic. At 4 p.m. Thursday, Detroit planned to start using the Abbott Laboratories 15-minute COVID-19 tests, becoming the first city in the nation to put the technology into practice, Duggan said.

"Detroit's always been the comeback city," said HFHS Senior Vice President Dr. Steven Kalkanis. "In the last century, we turned factories into the arsenal of democracy to win World War II. And now we're turning our health care system into a new front, in a war against COVID-19."

More information on the drug trial is available at www.HenryFord.com/whipCOVID19. Once enrollment opens, people can apply on that site.

Michigan has 10,791 cases of COVID-19 as of Thursday and 417 deaths. Detroit alone has 2,858 positive cases and 101 deaths.

“We’re going to be fighting the coronavirus for months – at least – to come. We need to have tools to fight back,” Duggan said. “It may not work. Or you might change the world.”

PREVENTION TIPS

In addition to washing hands regularly and not touching your face, officials recommend practicing social distancing, assuming anyone may be carrying the virus.

Health officials say you should be staying at least 6 feet away from others and working from home, if possible.

Carry hand sanitizer with you, and use disinfecting wipes or disinfecting spray cleaners on frequently-touched surfaces in your home (door handles, faucets, countertops) and when you go into places like stores.

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