I took it when I was in the Peace Corps, as a malaria prophylactic. It caused bad dreams but no other side effect for me, at the low doses we took.
Currently we are giving 400mg twice a day for two days, then 200mg twice a day for 3 more days to our patients suspected of or tested positive.
The worrisome side effect is a change in heart rhythm. All of our covid patients are treated on a critical care unit or ICU, so they are all on cardiac telemetry monitoring continuously. If that side effect shows up, we stop the HCQ. It's no big deal. Maybe other hospitals don't monitor cardiac rhythms?
[/quote]
What have you seen so far for results? What is your read on whether it works to prevent the really bad symptoms & progression of COVID-19?
[/quote]
It's hard to say, since the disease itself is so new and all we know about the symptoms are what we read about from other countries and what we see ourselves. How much of what I see is corona, and what part is medication side-effects is not easy to tease out.
My opinion is that the HCQ appears to have no particular side effects at the doses and length of time we are using it, 4-5 days. That is, before we started using HCQ the patients had fevers, chills, muscle aches and were absolutely exhausted, to the point that a 35 year old man in excellent shape was unable to walk 6 feet to the toilet. After using HCQ, the last week or so, maybe my patients are better, but maybe I am just catching some easier patients. I'll quiz the docs at work, who see a lot more patients than any individual nurse. I'll let you know in a few days what they say.