#2 Malaria drugs used to treat coronavirus won’t blind you
Hydroxychloroquine is a malaria drug used to treat immune conditions such as lupus and they can occasionally damage the retina in eyes. But if you take hydroxychloroquine for 5 years, less than 2% of people develop retinal problems. Double this dose is used in COVID-19 patients but it’s used for only one to two weeks. So retinal damage is very unlikely. However, if you are older than 50 and have a retinal disease, macular degeneration or have used the breast cancer therapy tamoxifen, tell your doctor. Also there is some evidence that hydroxychloroquine is effective in treating the virus, but it’s early days still and the evidence isn’t very strong yet.
