Could Dr. Zelenko’s drug cocktail that includes Hydroxychloroquine help save the lives of high-risk patients and cancer survivors?
In 2018, I had some sort of stomach infection. I mean, wow. I won’t go into the details, who knows, you might be eating. But I will say, my ER physician said that my specimen was “impressive.” I’m not sure it was a compliment or not, but I do know it was so impressive that I was admitted to the hospital.
Within minutes of landing in my hospital room, I noticed the TVs had been upgraded! Unfortunately, though, I also noticed that I felt sicker, and I felt feverish.
I told my nurse, and she took my temperature. It was 98.7 degrees if I remember correctly. However, they weren’t so concerned. But, because of my history with my temperature, I knew that a low-grade fever could go from very low, to very high, to very serious—fast.
When the medical team came by one last time for the night, I explained that I was almost always treated with antibiotics when I first showed any signs of a fever, no matter how low my temperature was. This is what my regular doctors back home did. But, these experts decided to stick with the guidelines as laid out by the World Health Organization (WHO).
This decision to treat with antibiotics early on in the past wasn’t done just because we all “felt” like it was the right thing to do. This decision came about after seeing how delaying treatment for my infections could put me in very dangerous situations—as it did in 1998, 2006, and 2012, to name a few.
The main reason my previous doctors were so concerned with my infections in the past was because my spleen had been removed. It had been taken out in the 80s, and well, I had a couple of other things going on.
In short, we learned that when I showed signs of infection, to take action fast—treat the infection early, and don’t wait until it was “bad.”
At the end of this hospital trip, I would survive with the help of heavy antibiotics, but I became another teaching scenario for a few residents at the hospital. To be honest, though, some great doctors came together, put together a plan, and got me out of a crazy situation.
So how does this all relate to COVID-19, and what’s going on today? Well, it has to do with the treatment of high-risk patients and their treatment options—patients with pre-existing conditions like myself and many others affected by cancer.
I know there has been a lot of talk in the media about Hydroxychloroquine. The good talk, the bad talk, and the ugly talk.
Reports out of South Korea, France, Turkey, the U.S., and other countries have shown promising results for the use of Hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19 patients, and the FDA recently approved the drug for “emergency coronavirus treatment.” But, no matter where people stand on the issue of using Hydroxychloroquine, the work of Dr. Vladimir Zelenko and his treatment plan is getting noticed, and I believe for good reasons.
Dr. Zelenko’s plan uses a drug cocktail of Hydroxychloroquine Sulfate, Zinc, and Azithromycin. And, it is one that could significantly impact the outcome of high-risk patients with COVID-19 infection.
His treatment plan has shown that early treatment with his drug cocktail has a near 100% efficacy rate in high-risk patients, with “success rate” being defined as the patient lives. One of the critical points the doctor stresses in treating high-risk patients is early treatment. Treat the virus before things get severe.
“Treat this infection, aggressively, early, and hard in the right population (high-risk),” Dr. Zelenko said in an interview with Rabbi Aryeh Katzin. This is something I’m familiar with, knocking an infection out before it knocks you out.
With this new information from Dr. Zelenko, I want to know how high-risk patients can get access to treatment early? How can we get the medicine we need to treat this deadly virus, “aggressively, early, and hard”?
Photo courtesy of The Times of Israel. Originally written for CureToday.com on April 7, 2020, not published.