Mumbai: Mahad doctor uses methylene blue, an old medicine, to treat Covid

MUMBAI: A Mahad-based doctor has published a research paper about saving hundreds of severe Covid-19 patients with methylene blue —one of the oldest synthetic medicines—after they didn’t respond to expensive antivirals.

Dr Himmatrao Bawaskar, who runs a hospital in Mahad and is globally recognised for his work on scorpion and snake venom, said he tried methylene blue inhalation on seven patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome during the first wave in 2020 after they didn’t respond to medicines such as remdesivir, favipiravir and tocilizumab. “As they all responded to methylene blue inhalation, I treated 200 more cases of mild to severe Covid-19 during the second wave in 2021,” he told TOI.

None of these patients died or developed post-Covid lung complications such as fibrosis or COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), according to his paper published in the ‘Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care’ on Friday.

Methylene blue is one of the many medications such as antimalarial HCQS (hydro chloroquine) and antiparasitic ivermectin that were “repurposed” to treat Covid-19 in the past two years. It used to be widely used as an antimalarial agent before HCQS. There are a number of clinical trials in various stages of completion across the world, with a few papers with small sample size published about methylene blue's ability to improve oxygen levels in

Covid

patients. In Gujarat, doctors have anecdotally used methylene blue in Covid treatment.

Dr Bawaskar

, who recently won the

Padmashri

, said he had read about the methylene blue clinical trials and decided to use it as a last-ditch attempt on the initial seven patients who were elderly and had multiple comorbidities.

His paper states that “bradykinin (an amino acid) plays an important role in the pathogenesis of Covid-19 disease” and worsens the cytokine storm or the body’s immune response to the Covid-causing coronavirus. As methylene blue can inhibit the production of bradykinin, inhaling it helped the patients, said Dr Bawaskar.

He said methylene blue improves the oxygen-carrying capacity and reduces hypoxia. “Moreover, it is easily available, cheap, non-toxic and is easy to administer in rural settings,” he added.

During the second wave, he wrote it as a treatment to be taken at home during nebulisation. “A 5ml vial costs Rs 10 only and is affordable,’’ he added.

However, Dr

Shashank Joshi

, who is a member of the state government’s task force on Covid-19, said that the use of methylene blue is not yet based on evidence. “We need better robust data before it is labelled as Covid treatment. An anecdotal therapy is not recommended for all,” he added.