Doctors around the country are prescribing the drug, hydroxychloroquine, to many of their to coronavirus patients. The drug is also being used in the Rochester area. 

Chief of Infectious Disease at Rochester General Hospital, Dr. Maryrose Laguio-Vila, says the drug is being prescribed to about 50 percent of the hospital’s positive COVID-19 patients.

“The reason I think that it requires so much discussion among providers, because there is not a bounty of scientific evidence.... What we do is we evaluate them on a case by case basis,” said Laguio-Vila.

Hydroxychloroquine, also known as Plaquenil, has been around for decades. Once a common anti-malaria drug, it is now used by rheumatologists to treat various inflammation, auto-immune or arthritis conditions.

“These are serious conditions. The strategy of using hydroxychloroquine, in these rheumatologic diseases are for the anti-inflammatory benefit," said Dr. Laguio-Vila.

The drug is being touted by officials at high levels as a drug that could be used as a potential cure for COVID-19 in certain patients.

"I hope they use the hydroxychloroquine," said President Donald Trump.

“We’ve allowed usage of the hydroxychloroquine," said New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.

Dr. Laguio-Vila says there is not enough science to date that can prove if hydroxychloroquine can make a difference in COVID-19 patients.

“A lot of these studies that are coming out, which are only a few, about hydroxychloroquine, they are observational and publish on what the physicians are seeing, but it’s not in a controlled trial," said Dr. Laguio-Vila.

Conclusive data is yet to come, but in the meantime, it is being prescribed to fight the virus in some patients.

“We do have individuals who, based on that case by case basis analysis, that was felt that giving them hydroxychloroquine outweighed the risks," said Dr. Laguio-Vila.

In fact, a 94-year-old Rochester patient who’d been given the drug, is a COVID-19 survivor.

Dr. Laguio-Vila says, “There is this medicine, but let’s talk about the information that we know it is and the information that we know that it isn’t. And let’s make this decision together. Should we do it or should we not?"

Experts say people who are already taking hydroxychloroquine for other ailments are not immune to COVID-19. RGH has seen users of the drug contract coronavirus.