French expert says second study shows malaria drug helps fight coronavirus

controversial French professor who believes anti-malaria drug chloroquine can help beat coronavirus, has claimed that a new study he has conducted confirms its "efficiency" at combatting virus.

But several or scientists and critics of microbiologist Didier Raoult, who hes infectious diseases department of La Timone hospital in Marseille, were quick to cast doubt upon his findings.

y said testing was t carried out in a controlled study and that results were purely "observational". Dr Raoult, whose ory has been taken up by US President Donald Trump, said his new study of 80 patients showed that four out of five of those treated with drug h "favourable" outcomes.

He h earlier reported that after treating 24 patients for six days with hydroxychloroquine and antibiotic azithromycin, virus disappeared in all but a quarter of m. research has t yet been peer reviewed r formally published in a medical journal. stranger to controversy, colourful scientist with shoulder-length blond hair and grey beard, insists that Chinese pulmonary expert Zhong Nanshan observed a similar pattern.

Raoult's critics have pointed to problems with protocol of his testing and worrying side effects of drug. Fakemed, a group of scientists against fake news in health, lambasted 68-year-old professor. After Raoult released his latest findings on internet over weekend, Professor Francois Balloux of University College, London, tried to dampen talk that drug could be a silver bullet.

", (this is) t 'huge' I'm afraid," he said on Twitter. "This is an observational study (i.e. t controlled) following 80 patients with fairly mild symptoms. majority of patients recover form #COVID19 infection, with or without #Hchloroquine and #Azithromycin treatment." Statistician Tim Morris of university's clinical trials unit was even more scathing.

"If hydroxychloroquine turns out to be useful," he tweeted, "it's a shame that this group will be praised as heroes and prophets inste of held to account for misinformation and self-promotion y've been churning out at a critical time."

Chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, which is often sold as Plaquenil, have been hailed as a potential "gamechangers" by Trump, but US government experts are as yet unconvinced, with Dr Anthony Fauci, he of US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, calling results so far "anecdotal".

At least one person has alrey died in US after self-medicating with a n-pharmaceutical version of drug used for cleaning fish tanks. Fears have also being raised that stockpiling of drug will deprive people who are alrey being treated with it for malaria, lupus and certain s of arthritis.

Dr Philippe Gautret, who was part of team behind Raoult's latest findings, mitted that y only used combination of drugs on "patients who h t been showing signs of being seriously ill after mission" to hospital. "Our strategy was precisely to treat m at that st to stop disease getting to a more serious st," he told AFP. "A doctor can and must think like a doctor and t like a methodological researcher," Raoult wrote in an article for French Le Monde daily, defending his methods.

According to his latest study, 65 of 80 patients treated improved and were discharged from hospital in an aver of less than five days. One patient d 74 was still in intensive care and ar d 86 died. But his critics say such results were fairly typical of virus.

Two Chinese studies have shown that "10 days after start of symptoms, 90 percent of people who have a moderate form (of disease) have a controlled viral lo," epidemiologist Dominique Costagliola, of French health research institute Inserm, told AFP. fact that y got se results using hydroxychloroquine "does t make case for its effect," she said.

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Photo Credit-AFP