Pause in WHO hydroxychloroquine testing

The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday that it will temporarily drop hydroxychloroquine - the malaria drug US President Trump says he is taking - from its global study into experimental COVID-19 treatments, saying that its experts need to review all available evidence to date.

In a press briefing, WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that in light of a paper published last week in the Lancet that showed people taking hydroxychloroquine were at higher risk of death and heart problems, there would be “a temporary pause” on the hydroxychloroquine arm of its global clinical trial.

“This concern relates to the use of hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine in COVID-19,” Tedros said, adding that the drugs are approved treatments for people with malaria or autoimmune diseases.

Other treatments in the trial, including the experimental drug remdesivir and an HIV combination therapy, are still being tested.

Last week, Trump announced he was taking hydroxychloroquine although he has not tested positive for COVID-19.

His own administration has warned the drug can have deadly side effects, and both the European Medicines Agency and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned health professionals last month that the drug should not be used to treat COVID-19 outside of hospital or research settings due to numerous serious side effects that in some cases can be fatal.

WHO officials have also renewed praise for China in response to the COVID-19 outbreak, citing its "openness" to the prospect of scientific inquiries involving foreign experts into the origins of the novel coronavirus.

Dr Michael Ryan, WHO's emergencies chief, said the WHO were in "day to day" discussions with China regarding scientific inquiries into the animal origin of the coronavirus.

"And I am very pleased to hear a very consistent message coming from China, which is one of openness to such an approach," he said.

Trump has repeatedly criticised the WHO leadership, once calling it a "pipe organ" for China in the handling of the outbreak.

He has also pointed to unspecified intelligence suggesting the virus originated in a lab in the Chinese city of Wuhan, a claim denied by lab officials.

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