London: Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) was once regarded to treat coronavirus patients with the best intensity and effectiveness. This, however, has proved to be wrong as studies surface evidences which show that the anti-malaria drug doesn’t provide any significant use in covid-19 induced pneumonia patients for reducing the chances of their admission into the intensive care unit or death.
This was the drug termed as the potential “game changer” by the President of America, Donald trump.
A randomised clinical trial published in the journal The BMJ, shows that hospitalised patients with mild to moderate persistent COVID-19 who received hydroxychloroquine did not clear the virus from their blood more quickly than those getting treated through standard care.
Infact, adverse effects were seen in a higher ratio in patients who received HCQ. Even when it taken in combination with the standard therapy, the results do not support the routine use of hydroxychloroquine for patients with COVID-19. Despite this, hydroxychloroquine has already been included in Chinese guidelines on how best to manage the disease, and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued an emergency use authorization to allow the drug to be provided to certain hospitalised patients.
The FDA has since warned against use outside clinical trials or hospital settings as it fears the risk of heart rhythm problems if taken.
In the first RCT study, researchers from the University of Paris in France reviewed the effectiveness and safety of hydroxychloroquine compared with the standard care in adults admitted to the hospital with pneumonia due to COVID-19 and needed oxygen. The study consisted of 181 patients, where 84 received hydroxychloroquine within 48 hours of admission and 97 did not (control group).
There was no significant difference seen between both the groups for transfer to intensive care, death within 7 days, or developing acute respiratory distress syndrome within 10 days.
Researchers said that caution is needed in the analysis of their results, but that their findings do not support the use of hydroxychloroquine in patients hospitalized with COVID-19 pneumonia.
The second study took place in China where the researchers assessed the role of HCQ. The effectiveness and safety of hydroxychloroquine was compared with standard care in 150 adults hospitalized with mainly mild or moderate COVID-19. According to the character of the study, all these patients were randomly categorized into two groups.
One of the two groups received hydroxychloroquine in addition to standard care while the other, called as the control group, received only the standard therapy. After 4 weeks, tests revealed similar rates of COVID-19 in the two groups but adverse events were more common in those who received hydroxychloroquine. Symptom alleviation and time to relief of symptoms also did not differ meaningfully between the two groups. Analysts say that further studies are required to enhance their results but the adversity of HCQ cannot be ruled out in patients with Covid-19. These results do not support the treatment of coronavirus through hydroxychloroquine.
A previous study, published in the journal JAMA Cardiology, found that patients who received hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19 were at an increased risk of electrical changes to the heart and cardiac arrhythmias.
According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), a clinical trial has begun on Friday in the US to evaluate the effectiveness of HCQ given in combination with the antibiotic, azithromycin and how far this can prevent hospitalization and death of COVID-19 patients.
