World / I finished 2-week course of hydroxychloroquine and I'm still here: Trump

Washington: A week after revealing he was taking hydroxychloroquine or HCQ as a preventive drug for coronavirus, President Donald Trump said he was doing fine.

“Finished, just finished… And by the way, I’m still here,” President Trump said during an interview on Sunday. He added that if it’s something that helps, that’s all he wants.

Last week, the US President had disclosed that he was taking a two-week course of the unproven anti-malarial drug along with a zinc supplement.

Although it has not been proven to guarantee prevention or cure for coronavirus, Trump was firm that the regimen was meant to help prevent the deadly viral disease that had infected two White House staffers.

Trump has already spent weeks pushing the drug as a potential treatment for COVID-19 and said that he even consulted with the White House doctor about taking the drug, but it was not explicitly recommended for him since he has not tested positive for the virus.

At the same time, many of his administration’s top medical professionals have cautioned against using the drug.

Going by most reports, the anti-malarial drug, that Trump had called the potential “game-changer” for COVID-19, showed no benefit in treating patients with the disease in Veterans Health Administration medical centres in the US. On the other hand, the risk of death was found to be higher in those treated with HCQ than those treated otherwise.