Carl, 46, on the discharge of chloroquine: “Completely lost”

State epidemiologist Magnus Gisslén regrets the prescription of the drug chloroquine for covid disease.

Carl Sydenhag suffered convulsions, blurred vision and failing balance from the medicine.

– The cramps felt as if I had been run over, he says.

The medicine chloroquine infochloroquine Chloroquine is an approved medicine for the treatment of certain rheumatic diseases and malaria. was prescribed to covid patients during the beginning of the pandemic. According to researchers, upwards of 17,000 worldwide have died from the medicine, which is usually prescribed for malaria and some rheumatic diseases.

There is still no information that Swedish patients have died from the side effects.

In an interview in Gothenburg Post during yesterday, state epidemiologist Magnus Gisslén regrets that chloroquine was prescribed. In the meantime, he was chief physician at the infection clinic at Sahlgrenska University Hospital and took the initiative to be the first hospital in the country to stop prescribing chloroquine for covid patients.

– We should never have started using it, but we did. Then luckily we stopped very quickly, he says to GP.

“Felt as if I had been run over”

Carl Sydenhag is one of those who was prescribed chloroquine at the beginning of the pandemic.

– That it was printed is completely lost. People died from this medicine. I should just be happy that I’m alive, says Carl Sydenhag.

An infection in a removed wisdom tooth led to Carl ending up at Södersjukhuset in search of antibiotics. He was given penicillin but began to feel ill five days later. A high fever struck and would not budge. After ten days he was back in the hospital.

Carl had to be put under observation in the intensive care unit. The doctors suspected he had corona. Rapid test was taken but initially showed negative. Finally came one that showed positive.

“Are you alive?”

Then the doctors prescribed chlorine phosphate and gave him two tablets at a time. He was prescribed to take 1,000 milligrams per day for seven days.

– I lost my balance and looked cloudy every time I took the medicine. But the worst was the massive cramps. It felt like I was run over, he says.

After reading up on the side effects of the drug, he called the poison control center.

– “Are you alive?”, they said. “Have you absorbed all this?”, says Carl.

Was offered lunch box

The Poisons Information Center urged Carl to get to the healthcare system as soon as possible. He then ended up in Sankt Göran’s hospital, but did not feel that he was taken seriously.

– They didn’t want to listen to me and thought I was a cuckoo looking for attention. But I was terrified of getting these ailments again, he says.

But Carl stood his ground. The medical service called the poison information center and then everything turned around.

– When they realized how serious it was, they took me seriously. There was juice, soda, and sandwiches. A nurse even offered me her lunch box, he says.

– I have been treated well in the hospitals. But I don’t understand how they could print this. Who asked the doctors to prescribe chloroquine? That’s the biggest question I have left.

Four years after Aftonbladet last spoke to him, he is doing well. He thinks.

– I hope I feel well. But I still see cloudy. It could be that I am 46 years old and need glasses, he says jokingly.

FACT What is chloroquine?

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