Man Dies, Wife in Critical Condition After Taking Chloroquine to Protect Selves from Coronavirus

A computer-generated rendering of the coronavirus by Felipe Reed/CC BY-SA

A married couple from Arizona found and ingested the drug chloroquine this week, believing it would protect them from the coronavirus. Instead, the husband is dead and his wife is in critical condition.

They did not take the form of chloroquine that is prescribed to treat malaria, but instead found it as one of the ingredients in an anti-parasite treatment for fish.

Chloroquine has been cited by the President as a potential cure for coronavirus. The wife, who has not been identified, stated that she had watched the President tout the drug.

According to MSNBC, she stated, "I saw it sitting on the back shelf and thought, 'Hey, isn't that the stuff they're talking about on TV?'" She then mixed the parasite treatment with water and drank it with her husband.