Malaria drug is not cure

– Treating Covid-19 patients with the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) had no positive effect and caused other health complications, two new studies showed yesterday.

The anti-inflammatory drug had been touted by US President Donald Trump as a potential “game changer”, after initial studies in laboratory settings showed it may be able to prevent the virus replicating.

But subsequent studies, including one funded by the US government, appear to have doused hopes that HCQ can help patients hospitalised with Covid-19.

In the first study released yesterday, researchers in France monitored 181 patients hospitalised with pneumonia due to Covid-19 and who needed oxygen. Eighty-four were treated with HCQ and 97 were not.

They found no meaningful difference between the groups for transfer to intensive care, death within seven days or developing acute respiratory distress syndrome within 10 days.

“Hydroxychloroquine has received worldwide attention as a potential treatment because of positive results from small studies,” said the authors of the research, published in the BMJ journal. “However, [our] results do not support its use in patients admitted to hospital with Covid-19 who require oxygen.”

A second study saw researchers in China split 150 Covid-19 patients, half of who received HCQ.

After four weeks, tests revealed similar rates of sustained infection among both groups, though adverse reactions to treatment were more common in the HCQ group.

Nor did the severity or duration of symptoms differ between each group.

Last month, the European Medicines Agency warned some studies had seen serious and sometimes fatal heart problems in patients treated with HCQ.

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Paris

Our results do not support its use in patients admitted to hospital with Covid-19 who require oxygen.

Researcher journal