Hydroxychloroquine should not be used to prevent or treat COVID-19, as advised this week by the World Health Organization (WHO). He anti-inflammatory drug he was once promoted by former President Donald Trump, who said yes taking treatment to avoid the coronavirus contract last spring.
A group of WHO experts found that the drug has no significant effects on deaths or hospitalizations due to coronavirus. They added that he can even increase the risk of adverse effects.
To be sure, “the guideline development group made a strong recommendation against the use of hydroxychloroquine for people who do not have covid-19,” the group wrote in the peer-reviewed medical journal The BMJ.
“The court ruled that almost all people would not consider this drug worthwhile.”
The tests culminated from six randomized controlled trials involving more than 6,000 people, both with known exposure to the virus.
The group said hydroxychloroquine is no longer considered a priority in research and that researchers should refocus their efforts on other promising preventative drugs. It was added that the more than 80 trials that plan to enroll at least 100,000 participants to research in hydroxychloroquine are unlikely to discover any benefit and should be canceled.
The drug, which is used to treat malaria, lupus and rheumatoid arthritis, gained prominence when Trump and other members of his administration strongly promoted it. The former president they have contracted the virus in October and received unauthorized monoclonal antibody treatment at Walter Reed Medical Center.
The FDA initially issued an emergency use authorization for the drug last March. That withdrew permission in June, after determining that the drug “is unlikely to be effective in treating COVID-19 for authorized uses.”
Federal regulators had previously warned against the use of hydroxychloroquine, except in hospitals and formal studies, because of the risk of side effects, especially heart rhythm problems.