WHO halts hydroxychloroquine clinical trial in Covid-19 patients

Malaria drug testing suspended due to safety concerns

The World Health Organisation has suspended testing the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine in Covid-19 patients due to safety concerns, WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said yesterday.

Hydroxy choloroquine has been touted by Donald Trump and others as a possible treatment for the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. The US President has said he was taking the drug to help prevent infection.

“The executive group has implemented a temporary pause of the hydroxychloroquine arm within the Solidarity trial while the safety data is reviewed by the data safety monitoring board,” Tedros told an online briefing.

He said the other arms of the trial — a major international initiative to hold clinical tests of potential treatments for the virus — were continuing.

Dr. Mike Ryan, head of the WHO emergencies programme, said the decision to suspend trials of hydroxychloroquine had been taken out of “an abundance of caution”.

US crowds defy rules

In the US, big crowds turned out for the Memorial Day weekend amid warnings from authorities about people disregarding the coronavirus social distancing rules and risking a resurgence of the scourge as the country braces to soon surpass more than 100,000 deaths. The death toll was 99,556 last night Dr Deborah Birx, coordinator of the White House coronavirus task force, said she was “very concerned” about scenes of people crowding together over the weekend.