Last week, a study published in the scientific journal, Lancet, said that the handling of Covid-19 patients with the antimalarial hydroxychloroquine drug had absolutely no benefit.
Saturday, June 6, 2020
UPDATimes - WHO decided to continue testing the hydroxychloroquine malaria drug after research said the drug, seen as increasing the risk of death in corona virus patients, had been withdrawn due to data problems.
Three study authors said they could no longer guarantee the validity of the study because Surgisphere, a health service company that supplies data, would not allow an independent audit of its dataset.
In fact, this research became the WHO's basis to stop hydroxychloroquine trials because of concerns about safety aspects
Even so, world leaders including US President Donald Trump continue to tout its use.
Surgisphere's chief executive Sapan Desai, one of four study researchers, told The Guardian newspaper that he would cooperate with an independent audit but he stressed that transferring the data would "violate client agreements and confidentiality requirements".
What does the study say?
The study, published last month in the scientific journal Lancet, involved 96,000 corona virus patients in 671 hospitals worldwide.
Nearly 15,000 were given hydroxychloroquine - or the like, chloroquine - either as a single drug or with antibiotics.
It was concluded that the drug was ineffective against the virus and increased the risk of patients experiencing irregular and dying heartbeats.
Mandeep Mehra, a Harvard University professor who led the research, along with Frank Ruschitzka from the University Hospital Zurich and Amit Patel from the University of Utah, said in a statement that they had tried to arrange a third-party data review of the data, but Surgisphere refused to work same.
"We sincerely apologize to you, the editors, and journal readers for all the shame or discomfort caused by this," the group added.
The researchers cautioned that hydroxychloroquine should not be given outside of clinical trials.
Is there evidence that the drug works against the corona virus?
There is concern in the scientific community about using these drugs to treat corona virus.
Hydroxychloroquine is considered safe for treating malaria, and conditions such as lupus or arthritis, but so far no clinical trials have recommended it for use against Covid-19.
The results of one clinical trial at the University of Minnesota have shown that hydroxichloroquine is not effective in preventing corona virus.
The results of the study mentioned: patients who are most likely to die in hospital and have heartbeat complications are those who consume hydroxycchloruin.
The mortality rates among the Covid-19 patient groups are as follows: 18% hydroxichloroquine; chloroquine 16.4%, patients who did not take hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine 9%.
As for patients given hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine combined with antibiotics, their mortality rate is even higher.
The researchers cautioned that hydroxychloroquine should not be given outside of clinical trials.
Dr Marcos Espinal, director of the Pan American Health Organization - part of the World Health Organization (WHO) - stressed that no clinical trials have ever recommended hydroxichlorochuin as a treatment drug for patients with Covid-19.
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