A citizen of the United States (US) succumbed to death, while his wife remains in critical condition after the couple ingested chloroquine phosphate to treat coronavirus. They ingested the aquarium cleaning product similar to the drug that President Donald Trump mentioned as a potential treatment for coronavirus infection, as per media reports.

According to Banner Health Hospital in Phoenix cited in a report by Reuters , the couple was in their 60s and experienced distress and nausea after gulping down the drug, an additive used at aquariums to clean fish tanks.

Chloroquine phosphate shares the same active ingredient as malaria drugs that President Trump has touted as possibly effective against COVID-19, the potentially life-threatening disease caused by the coronavirus. Meanwhile, the World Health Organization (WHO) is also conducting a test on the drugs used against malaria.

Last week, US President took to microblogging site Twitter and wrote about the combination of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin, saying it had “a real chance to be one of the biggest game-changers in the history of medicine.”

After Trump’s tweet, Banner Health said in a statement on Monday that Chloroquine, a malaria medication, should not be ingested to treat or prevent this virus.

Currently, there are no vaccines available to contain the virus that is spreading rampantly across the world. Many research organizations and scientific institutions are testing the virus to create the antidote against it. But, they maintained that the process would take at least a year for them to come up with a vaccine against COVID-19.

Meanwhile, the number of cases of coronavirus is nearing 4,00,000, with nas may as 16,713 people have died due to the epidemic.

Dr Daniel Brooks, Banner Poison and Drug Information Center medical director told Reuters: “Given the uncertainty around COVID-19, we understand that people are trying to find new ways to prevent or treat this virus, but self-medicating is not the way to do so.”

Brooks urged the medical community to not prescribe chloroquine medication to any non-hospitalized patients.

Expressing his concerns over people’s panic, Brooks added, “The last thing that we want right now is to inundate our emergency departments with patients who believe they found a vague and risky solution that could potentially jeopardize their health.”

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