RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – A study involving hydroxychloroquine – a drug used for malaria and often mentioned by US President Donald Trump as a potential treatment for coronavirus – showed no benefits against Covid-19. The findings were based on a comprehensive study of 368 patients at veterans’ hospitals across the country.
There were more deaths among those who took hydroxychloroquine than among those who were given standard medication for the disease, according to the researchers involved in the study. The nationwide study was not a rigorous experiment, but it is the most comprehensive to date analyzing the drug to combat Covid-19, used on its own or in combination with azithromycin, an antibiotic.
Approximately 28 percent of patients given hydroxychloroquine plus the standard treatment died, while 11 percent of those given only the standard treatment died.
In addition, some 22 percent of patients given hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin died, but the difference between this group and the one given the standard treatment was not deemed large enough to rule out other factors that may have influenced it.
The study was posted online by the researchers and submitted for publication in the New England Journal of Medicine, but has not been peer-reviewed to date by other scientists. The research was funded by grants from the National Institute of Health and the University of Virginia.
Source: Estadão Conteúdo