As many as 15,000 people in Mumbai, including many in Dharavi, Asia\u2019s most crowded slum, will be given an anti-malarial drug as a preventive therapy to ward off the deadly coronavirus.<\/p>\n
The first-of-its-kind mass experiment of using hydroxychloroquine as a prophylaxis is being undertaken in the state of Maharashtra – home to India\u2019s financial center that\u2019s racing to curb the pathogen. Mumbai has emerged as the nation\u2019s biggest virus hotspot, reporting the maximum number of infected cases and deaths.<\/p>\n
About \u201c10,000 to 15000 people who are quarantined and suspected to be infected, will be given the drug,\u201d Maharashtra\u2019s Health Minister Rajesh Tope said in an online media briefing on Monday. \u201cOnly people having a high risk of infection in Dharavi will be given the drug.\u201d<\/p>\n
The move to administer the much-touted but unproven drug as a preventive therapy on a mass scale highlights the race among local health care officials to curb the highly-infectious pathogen from spreading in Mumbai\u2019s infamously crowded slums. Social distancing is impossible in areas such as Dharavi, where nearly a million people live in 100-square-feet tin hutments shared by as many as ten slum dwellers.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s why despite a patchy efficacy record and long list of side-effects, hydroxychloroquine — called a \u2018game changer\u2019 by U.S. President Donald Trump — is being relied on in Mumbai, which has reported more than 15% of India\u2019s over 18,500 cases and almost one-fourth of its deaths.<\/p>\n
Maharashtra\u2019s health minister Tope added that hydroxychloroquine will be given as a prophylaxis to health workers and quarantined people. Those with heart ailments and under the age of 15 or over 60, will not be given the drug, he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As many as 15,000 people in Mumbai, including many in Dharavi, Asia\u2019s most crowded slum, will be given an anti-malarial drug as a preventive therapy to ward off the deadly coronavirus. The first-of-its-kind mass experiment of using hydroxychloroquine as a prophylaxis is being undertaken in the state of Maharashtra – home to India\u2019s financial center […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":42738,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3090,2,20],"tags":[3517,3518,471],"class_list":["post-42736","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-coronavirus","category-featured","category-india","tag-coronavirus-drug","tag-mumbai","tag-trump"],"yoast_head":"\n