Treating Covid-19 patients with the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) had no positive effect and caused other health complications, two new studies have shown.
The anti-inflammatory has been touted by US President Donald Trump among others as a potential "game changer", after initial studies in lab settings showed it may be able to prevent the virus replicating.
But several subsequent studies – including one funded by the US government – appear to have doused hopes that HCQ can help patients hospitalised with Covid-19.
In the first study released on Friday, researchers in France monitored 181 patients hospitalised with pneumonia due to Covid-19 and who needed oxygen.
Eighty-four were treated with HCQ and 97 were not.
They found no meaningful difference between the groups for either transfer to intensive care, death within seven days or developing acute respiratory distress syndrome within 10 days.
_______________
Coronavirus around the world
-
A medical worker takes a swab sample from a man in a neighborhood in Wuhan, in China’s central Hubei province. AFP -
Pupils observe social distancing rules in the playground in Edegem, near Antwerp. AFP -
A driver checks social distancing markers on the seats of his tram, before leaving the garage in Sarajevo, Bosia. AFP -
Migrant workers on the outskirts of Hyderabad travel on a lorry to return to their hometowns. AFP -
Children wait in lines at a crèche in Langa, near Cape Town. AFP -
Men wearing protective overalls and mask sanitise St Peter's Basilica in The Vatican. AFP -
Tube commuters wearing PPE travel during the evening 'rush hour' on the Circle Line, in central London. AFP -
Swiss Guards wearing a face mask give a salute as they stand guard at an entrance of The Vatican. AFP -
Labourers take a break in their quarters maintaining social distancing at DH Cube Industries, a heavy manufacturing factory, at Vasna Buzarg village, some 40km from Ahmedabad. AFP -
A traffic police officer rides a self-balancing scooter in Chennai. AFP -
A horse drawn carriage takes passengers along a road during a partial lockdown imposed due to the coronavirus in New Delhi, India. Bloomberg -
Airport health officials at a check point at Soekarno-Hatta Jakarta International airport in Tangerang. AFP -
A man wearing a face masks, as a preventive measure against the spread of the new coronavirus, COVID-19, walks by a graffiti reading "Hunger", in Caracas. AFP -
Police officers are seen during a raid at Santo Domingo neighborhood amid the new COVID-19, coronavirus pandemic, in Medellin, Colombia. AFP
_______________
"Hydroxychloroquine has received worldwide attention as a potential treatment for Covid-19 because of positive results from small studies," said the authors of the research, published in the BMJ journal.
"However, the results of this study do not support its use in patients admitted to hospital with Covid-19 who require oxygen."
A second study saw researchers in China split 150 Covid-19 patients in to two groups, one of which received HCQ.
After four weeks tests revealed similar rates of sustained infection among both groups, though adverse reactions to treatment were more common in the HCQ group.
Nor did the severity or duration of symptoms differ between each group.
Hydroxychloroquine and a related compound chloroquine have been used for decades to treat malaria, as well as the autoimmune disorders lupus and rheumatoid arthritis.
Last month the European Medicines Agency warned that there was no indication HCQ could treat Covid-19 and said some studies had seen serious and sometimes fatal heart problems in patients.
