Coronavirus: Doctors kept close eye on Donald Trump’s use of malaria drug
The White House medical team kept a close eye on Donald Trump’s heart rhythms, to watch for potential side effects.
The White House medical team kept a close eye on Donald Trump’s heart rhythms, including at least one electrocardiogram, to watch for potential side effects when the US President took a two-week course of a malaria drug to try to prevent him getting coronavirus, his doctor revealed.
“The President completed the regimen safely and without side effects,” Sean Conley wrote in a report on Mr Trump’s latest physical and his treatment with hydroxychloroquine.
Overall, Dr Conley said, Mr Trump showed little change in basic health measurements from 16 months ago. He gained a pound but, on the plus side, his cholesterol level continued to fall. “The data indicates the President remains healthy,” Dr Conley concluded.
Mr Trump recently took a two-week course of hydroxychloroquine after two White House staffers tested positive for COVID-19.
Dr Conley said it was done with “close monitoring of the electrocardiogram”, indicating that doctors were looking for changes in his heartbeat. Abnormal heart rhythms are one of the dangerous side effects found in studies of the drug.
The drug proved ineffective for preventing COVID-19 in the first large, high-quality study to test it in people in close contact with someone with the disease.
Results published on Wednesday by the New England Journal of Medicine show that hydroxychloroquine was no better than placebo pills at preventing illness from the coronavirus. The drug did not seem to cause serious harm, although about 40 per cent of those on it did have side effects, mostly mild stomach problems.
Mr Trump has frequently cited anecdotal reports and seemed determined to prove the naysayers wrong.
He weighed 110.7kg, giving him a body mass index of 30.5, based on his 190.5cm frame. A rating of 30 is the level at which doctors consider someone obese. About 40 per cent of Americans are obese.
Mr Trump was evaluated twice for the physical, first last November and then in April.
He has a resting heart rate of 63 beats a minute. A normal adult resting heart rate ranges from 60 to 100 beats a minute: a lower rate generally implies better cardiovascular fitness.
His blood pressure was 121/79. An elevated blood pressure range is when an upper number consistently ranges from 120-129 and less than 80 for the lower number.
AP
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