The key difference between doxycycline and hydroxychloroquine is that hydroxychloroquine has more serious side effects than doxycycline.
Hydroxychloroquine has several serious side effects, such as eye problems, changes in the color of the eye, blurred vision, sensitivity to light or changes to the color observation, muscle weakness, cramps, etc. Most of these serious side effects can be prevented by using doxycycline as a replacement for hydroxychloroquine.
CONTENTS
1. Overview and Key Difference
2. What is Doxycycline
3. What is Hydroxychloroquine
4. Doxycycline vs Hydroxychloroquine in Tabular Form
5. Summary – Doxycycline vs Hydroxychloroquine
What is Doxycycline?
Doxycycline is a type of tetracycline antibiotic that can fight bacteria in the body. Many different bacterial infections, including urinary tract infections, intestinal infections, respiratory system infections, eye infections, gonorrhea, chlamydia, syphilis, etc., can be treated using this drug. Sometimes, it can also be used to treat malaria, anthrax, and infections caused by mites, ticks, and lice.
There are some important considerations about this medication. If someone is allergic to tetracycline antibiotics, he or she mustn’t take this drug. Children under the age of eight should not take this drug unless it is essential because it can cause permanent yellowing in the teeth of children. Furthermore, using this drug during pregnancy can cause disorders in the unborn baby. Along with its desired effects, doxycycline can sometimes cause side effects such as blistering of the skin, bloating, chills, clay-coloured stool, constipation, cough, dark-coloured urine, and decreased apatite.
What is Hydroxychloroquine?
Hydroxychloroquine is a medication used to treat malaria. We can also use this medication to prevent malaria infection in areas or regions that are known for other medicines not working, such as chloroquine. Furthermore, we can use hydroxychloroquine to treat coronavirus in certain hospitalized patients.
When considering the chemical properties of hydroxychloroquine, the chemical formula is C18H26ClN3O. It is also named as Plaquenil, Oxichloroquine, or Hidroxichloroquina. The molar mass of this compound is 335.9 g/mol. It is a 4-aminoquinoline having immunosuppressive, anti-autophagy, and antimalarial activities.
Hydroxychloroquine is comparatively less safe than doxycycline and can be dangerous as well. This medication can cause clinical worsening of mild symptomatic or asymptomatic COVID-19 and achieve virological suppression. Some common side effects related to this compound include headache, dizziness, loss of appetite, diarrhea, etc.
The precise action of this medication is not known. But it is assumed to suppress immune function by interfering with the processing and presentation of antigens and the production of cytokines. Moreover, it acts as a lysosomotropic agent that can raise intralysosomal pH.
What is the Difference Between Doxycycline and Hydroxychloroquine?
Doxycycline and hydroxychloroquine are two types of medication. The key difference between doxycycline and hydroxychloroquine is that hydroxychloroquine shows some serious side effects, which include eye problems, changes in the color of the eye, blurred vision, sensitivity to light or changes to the color observation, muscle weakness, cramps, etc. Most of these can be prevented if doxycycline is used in place of hydroxychloroquine. Therefore, doxycycline is considered to be a safe alternative to hydroxychloroquine to get the same effectiveness.
Moreover, doxycycline tablets are typically orange-coated, round, unscored tablets while hydroxychloroquine tablets are white, oblong, film-coated, and imprinted with HCQS.
The below infographic presents the differences between doxycycline and hydroxychloroquine in tabular form for side-by-side comparison.
Summary – Doxycycline vs Hydroxychloroquine
Doxycycline is a type of tetracycline antibiotic that can fight bacteria in the body. Hydroxychloroquine is a medication used to treat malaria. The key difference between doxycycline and hydroxychloroquine is that hydroxychloroquine has more serious side effects than doxycycline. Therefore, doxycycline is considered to be a safe alternative to hydroxychloroquine to get the same effectiveness.
Reference:
1. “Hydroxychloroquine Oral: Uses, Side Effects, Interactions, Pictures, Warnings & Dosing.” WebMD.
Image Courtesy:
1. “Bottle of Doxycycline” By NIAID (CC BY 2.0) via Flickr
2. “Hydroxychloroquine” By Whispyhistory – Own work (CC BY-SA 4.0) via Commons Wikimedia