Covid-19: Quarantine patients being treated with vitamin C at hospital after promising results

Each dose is more than 16 times the daily dietary vitamin allowance of vitamin C.

By Web Report

Published: Thu 26 Mar 2020, 9:37 AM

Last updated: Thu 26 Mar 2020, 11:46 AM

Hospitals in New York are administering 1,500 milligrams of intravenous vitamin C to critically ill coronavirus patients, based on effectiveness of the experimental treatments in Shanghai, China.

Dr Andrew Weber, a Long Island based pulmonologist and critical-care specialist with Northwell Health, said his intensive-care patients are immediately given massive doses of the powerful antioxidant three or four times a day. Each dose is more than 16 times the daily dietary vitamin allowance of vitamin C advised from the National Institute of Health, Dr Weber explained to the New York Post.

"The patients who received vitamin C did significantly better than those who did not get vitamin C," Dr Weber said.

The vitamin C regimen is based on clinical trial of Covid-19 patients conducted on February 14 at Zhongnan Hospital in Wuhan, China. It is expected to be completed at the end of September, according to information on the US National Library of Medicine's website.

But Dr Weber added that vitamin C is not the only treatment given to patients, as Dr Weber explained they also receive the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine, the antibiotic azithromycin, as well as various biologics and blood thinners.

"It makes all the sense in the world to try and maintain this level of vitamin C," Dr Weber added, pointing out that Covid-19 patients who suffer sepsis, an inflammatory response that occurs when the body overreacts to the infection, suffer significant drops in vitamin C levels.

While, Jason Molinet, spokesman for New York's largest healthcare provider Northwell, said that Vitamin C is being 'widely used' as a coronavirus treatment throughout the health system. However he could not specify how many are receiving vitamin C treatment from the approximately 700 Covid-19 patients admitted across the hospital network.