World Health Organization Halts Use of Antimalarial Drug Against Coronavirus
The World Health Organization has suspended clinical trials of hydroxychloroquine drug to combat COVID-19 disease. Tedros Adhanom, director-general of the World Health Organization, stated that the antimalarial drug increases mortality among COVID-19 patients.
Trials of the antimalarial drug being conducted simultaneously in several countries have been temporarily suspended due to “safety concerns.” This decision was made following the publication of research suggesting that treatment with hydroxychloroquine may increase mortality rates.
Research teams from Harvard University in Boston and researchers from the cardiology center of Zurich University Hospital, in studies published in the scientific journal “The Lancet,” reviewed data from 96,000 coronavirus patients from hospitals worldwide.
The researchers concluded that hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine showed no improvement in COVID-19 patients’ conditions, but rather increased the risk of death in them and at the same time led to cardiac arrhythmia (irregular heartbeat).
They examined four groups, each receiving one of these drugs or a combination of them; the first group received hydroxychloroquine, the second group received chloroquine, the third group received a combination of the two drugs along with antibiotics. The fourth group received neither of these two drugs.
The mortality rate in the last group was 9 percent, among COVID-19 patients who received hydroxychloroquine it was 18 percent, chloroquine 16.4 percent, and in the group that used a combination of these two drugs along with antibiotics it was 23.8 percent.
In other words, the mortality rate among coronavirus patients treated with antimalarial drugs increased by up to 45 percent.
Tedros Adhanom, director-general of the World Health Organization, has emphasized that the use of two antimalarial drugs, hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine, generally helps in treating patients with malaria and autoimmune diseases.
The World Health Organization had tested hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine and other drugs under the “Solidarity” project. The director-general of the World Health Organization has now stated that clinical trials of these drugs will not continue.
Hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine drugs have been used for years to treat malaria. Chloroquine in particular has many side effects and is absolutely not recommended for treating coronavirus patients. However, Donald Trump, President of the United States, recently stated that he was taking the antimalarial drug to prevent coronavirus infection. Trump stated on Sunday, May 24, in an interview that he has now stopped taking the drug. Brazil had recommended this drug for treating lung infections, and Britain has also recently spent 35 million pounds purchasing hydroxychloroquine.
Source: DW
