The anti-malaria drug, hydroxychloroquine, has no significant effect when administered to COVID-19 patients suffering from mild or moderate symptoms and can bring more harm instead, the Shanghai-based Ruijin Hospital said in a study published by local media
BEIJING (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 19th May, 2020) The anti-malaria drug, hydroxychloroquine, has no significant effect when administered to COVID-19 patients suffering from mild or moderate symptoms and can bring more harm instead, the Shanghai-based Ruijin Hospital said in a study published by local media.
US President Donald Trump has publicly said that hydroxychloroquine, a drug used to both prevent and treat malaria and autoimmune diseases, could possibly be a "game changer" in efforts to contain the disease. On Monday, Trump even told reporters that he is taking hydroxychloroquine as a preventive measure against COVID-19.
Chinese experts have studied the treatment of 150 coronavirus patients from 16 hospitals between February 11 and March 20. The patients were divided into two separate groups, one of them receiving hydroxychloroquine as part of the treatment and the other being a control group.
"We did not find significant differences between the two groups,"� Dr. Xie Qing, director of Ruijin's infectious diseases department, said, as cited by Shanghai Daily online portal.
From the group of patients receiving the drug, 85.4 percent eventually recovered from COVID-19, compared to 81.3 percent of recoveries from the second group. At the same time, patients who were taking hydroxychloroquine had more side effects, mainly diarrhea.
"Some doctors in the United States said hydroxychloroquine has great effects in coronavirus treatment. But they have used the medicine along with other medication on different types of patients and so far no article has been published in journals," Dr. Qu Jieming, one of the leading researchers, said.
According to Qu, Ruijin Hospital's research provides "true and accurate evidence" for the performance of the anti-malaria drug in clinical practice.
