A panel of experts advising the World Health Organization (WHO) issued a strong recommendation against using hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19.
The guidance published in the British Medical Journal this week is based on the results of six trials with more than 6,000 participants, and “highly certainty evidence” found that the antimalarial drug “had little or no effect” on deaths and hospitalizations, although “moderate evidence of certainty” found little effect on laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection.
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The drug is no longer considered a ‘research priority’, the panel said. (iStock)
“The panel considers that this drug is no longer a research priority and that resources should be directed towards evaluating other more promising drugs to prevent COVID,” says the guide. The recommendations apply to anyone without COVID-19, whether or not they are exposed to the virus.
“The panel felt that almost everyone would not consider this medicine valuable,” continues the guidance. The recommendations are part of a “live guideline” open to updates, by WHO and with the support of the MAGIC Evidence Ecosystem Foundation.
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The international health agency announced last October that four drugs, including hydroxychloroquine, had “little or no effect” in hospitalized patients in one study.
Former President Trump told reporters in May 2020 that he was taking hydroxychloroquine to prevent coronavirus. Trump added that he consulted the former White House doctor before he started taking the drug. Dr. Sean Conley had announced in a statement: “After several discussions he and I had about the evidence for and against the use of hydroxychloroquine, we concluded that the potential benefit of the treatment outweighed the relative risks.”
Andrew Reilly of Fox News contributed to this report.