Hydroxychloroquine should not be used to prevent or treat COVID-19, the World Health Organization (WHO) advised this week. THE anti-inflammatory drug was once praised by former President Donald Trump, who said he was taking treatment to avoid getting the coronavirus last spring.
A panel of WHO experts found that the drug has no significant effect on deaths or hospitalizations due to the coronavirus. They added that it may even increase risk adverse effects.
With great certainty, “the guidelines development panel made a strong recommendation against the use of hydroxychloroquine for individuals who do not have covid-19,” the panel wrote in the peer-reviewed medical journal The BMJ on Tuesday.
“The panel felt that almost everyone would not consider this drug valuable.”
The evidence culminated in six randomized controlled trials that included more than 6,000 people – with and without known exposure to the virus.
The panel said that hydroxychloroquine is no longer considered a research priority and researchers should redirect their efforts to other promising preventive drugs. He added that the more than 80 studies that plan to enroll at least 100,000 participants for additional research that hydroxychloroquine are unlikely to reveal any benefits and should be canceled.
The drug, which is used to treat malaria, lupus and rheumatoid arthritis, came to prominence when Trump and other members of his government strongly promoted it. The ex-president contracted virus in October, and received unauthorized treatment with monoclonal antibodies at the Walter Reed Medical Center.
The FDA initially issued an emergency use authorization for the drug last March. This withdrew authorization 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 using hydroxychloroquine, except in hospitals and formal studies, due to the risk of side effects, especially heart rate problems.