According to a new World Health Organization recommendation, the anti-inflammatory drug hydroxychloroquine should not be used to prevent COVID-19.
Multiple clinical trials of more than 6,000 people showed that the drug had no significant effects on death or hospital admissions in people who had no prior exposure to COVID-19.
The trials showed “moderate certainty” that not only did hydroxychloroquine have no significant effect on laboratory-confirmed infection with COVID-19, but it also increased the risk of adverse effects.
The WHO recommendation was published in The BMJ, a medical journal. A group of WHO experts is studying different drugs that could be used to prevent COVID-19 infection and the hydroxychloroquine recommendation is the first published by the group.
“The group believes that this drug is no longer a research priority and that resources should be used to evaluate other more promising drugs to prevent COVID-19,” the WHO said in a statement.
The recommendations are intended to “provide reliable guidance on the management of COVID-19 and help physicians make better decisions with their patients,” the WHO said.
Hydroxychloroquine was initially approved as an anti-malarial drug and is also used to treat lupus and rheumatoid arthritis.
The drug gained prominence after the first President Trump
Donald Trump, Sacha Baron Cohen, says “danger of lies, hatred and conspiracies” in the Golden Globe speech. Sorkin uses the quote from Abbie Hoffman to condemn the violence of the Capitol: Democracy is “something you do.”, members of its administration and its supporters continually promoted it as a miracle treatment for COVID-19 and as a prophylactic, despite scant evidence.
Last spring, Trump said he had taken hydroxychloroquine, in combination with zinc, as a way to prevent COVID-19 from being taken after a White House aide was diagnosed with the disease.
Trump ended up hiring COVID-19 in October and recovered largely through the use of a monoclonal antibody treatment that at the time was not authorized by the Food and Drug Administration.
The promotion of Trump and his allies created a test on the drug, leading to a shortage of patients who needed it. Some states are still trying to deal with the reserves accumulated during the height of the hydroxychloroquine fashion last spring.
The FDA issued an emergency use authorization for the drug last March and outside observers felt the agency bowed to political pressure.
The permit was finally withdrawn in June due to serious security issues. The agency cited the failures of the clinical trial to show that the drug may not be effective in treating COVID-19 or preventing it in people who have been exposed and that the potential benefits do not outweigh the risks.
A separate study by the National Institutes of Health found that hydroxychloroquine had no benefit for hospitalized patients.