Study finds Hydroxychloroquine increases death risk in COVID-19 patients

Amid the coronavirus pandemic, it has recently come to light that Hydroxychloroquine, the anti-malarial drug Donald Trump has advocated as a possible cure for COVID-19 may have increased the chances of deaths in patients. According to reports, a new study has shown that the drug could actually be harmful to patients that have been treated with it around the world.

An untested and unproven drug

As per reports, the drug hydroxychloroquine and its older version, chloroquine have been given to COVID-19 patients in six continents, without proper clinical trials. Scientists believe that the drug should now only be given in the case of proper research settings so that the exact effects on the drug can be discerned.

According to reports, the particular study that is questioning the use of the anti-malaria drug was published online in the Lancet medical journal. The study is not a trial and therefore was not meant to determine whether the drug was effective or not, the study does manage to show that the hurry to use the drug as a coronavirus cure may be severely ill-advised.

Read: Trump Says He Has Finished Taking Hydroxychloroquine As Coronavirus Therapy

Read: ICMR Issues Revised Advisory On Use Of Hydroxychloroquine

According to reports, Hydroxychloroquine is a drug that is used to treat malaria patients, while it is fairly safe for patients being treated for malaria, COVID-19 is a very different disease and the drug has been known to cause heart irregularities. The authors behind the paper gathered research data on 96,000 patients in 671 hospitals, taking one of the drugs, with or without an antibiotic such as azithromycin, between 20 December and 14 April.

Read: COVID-19: Trump Says His Hydroxychloroquine Regimen Finishes In 'day Or Two'

Read: Trump Defends Taking Hydroxychloroquine As 'line Of Defence' Despite Alleged Health Risks

As per reports, the researchers made a startling discovery, the death rate among all groups taking the drugs was notably higher than among people who were not given them. According to Prof Mandeep R Mehra, lead author of the study and executive director of the Brigham and Women’s hospital advanced heart disease centre in Boston, US, ‘This is the first large-scale study to find statistically robust evidence that treatment with chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine does not benefit patients with Covid-19,’.

(Image Credit AP)