Quinine: An old drug back in the spotlight

Your old columnist is tickling a bit. Our President Donald Trump stated an observation for those suspected of contacting the COVID-19 virus that possibly treatment by chloroquine and/or hydroxychloroquine might work. The drugs have been tested and authorized for treatment and prevention of malaria. To use it for tempering the bad effects of the coronavirus would be off label. It wouldn’t be prohibited but would have to be agreed upon by both the doctor and the victim. Oh my here is Trump giving medical advice, “playing doctor” and we all know that he is not qualified to do so.

Let’s see malaria is a viral disease that causes humans to run high and debilitating fevers. The virus is spread by certain mosquitos that carry the virus and thrive in areas not far from the equator that have hot and humid climates year around. The death rate for early explorers of western background was high and even the native populations were hampered by contracting the disease. Somehow then it was discovered by those of western medicine that the drug quinine helped prevent the disease and lessened the effects of those who had been stung by the mosquitoes carrying the virus.

An aside is that a hugely successful effort was made to kill those mosquitoes with DDT and greatly better the lives of the native populations in those areas. Then came the uproar of how bad DDT was and that spraying had to be stopped. The poor natives are now back to encountering malaria big time.

Now quinine comes from the bark of the cinchona tree and is a compound that is extremely bitter to the taste. It didn’t take the English long to figure out that if quinine is dissolved in water then mixed with gin it was a more alluring drink. Gin and tonic or vodka tonic is the name across the bar.

In a past life this old tanker pilot was deployed for three summers straight to countries not far from the equator where the disease malaria was known to exist. Three deployments in support of the Vietnam War. The Air Force didn’t ask but rather demanded that we take quinine pills whenever we were sent south. We took one pill, washed it down good with water, each week. It evidently worked because no one that I knew seemed to have contacted malaria while over there. Possibly though a few of us were double safe because we drank gin and tonic on occasion whenever we came close to a bar.

One thing about the quinine treatment was that when we came back home to the States we quit taking those bitter little pills. Then for a week or two our bodies talked to us because we had become addicted to the quinine and our bodies objected to the withdrawal.

Evidently the modern medicine prevention of malaria for travelers is the drug hydroxychloroquine which is labeled for that use. The possibility that it also might medicate the bad results of exposure to coronavirus, even though “off label” would seem logical to me and worth a try. Note to my handlers: if I contact the COVID-19 disease please have the doctor administer chloroquine and/or hydroxychloroquine even though it was President Donald Trump that first made me aware of it.

I’ve been visiting with a couple of pilot friends that fly for the airlines. Both have said that it is really strange flying when the number of flight crew is sometimes larger than the number of passengers on board. Kyle who flies for Alaska Airlines said that he had to ride jumpseat two times to get to a leg where he is the crewmember.

Speaking of large aircraft another pilot friend who flies for the Nebraska Air Guard was over in Italy late last year. He said that he got sick, really hurting sick, and was down for about four days before getting better. That was before the coronavirus thing hit but he wonders if perhaps he is a survivor of that malady. He is okay now.

Stay home and stay well if at all possible. Read a book or two or three.

That is how I saw it.

Dick Trail

-- Editor's note: This column has been modified to mention DDT as the author intended, rather than the herbicide mentioned in the original version.