The Covid-19 patients who are being treated with trump hydroxychloroquine had higher deaths rates compared to those who did not take the drug, according to a study funded by the National Institutes of Health and the University of Virginia.
President Trump has been encouraging and championing the use of hydroxychloroquine for Coronavirus treatment and according to him the drugs is very effective and shows “tremendous promise” when being compared to other Covid-19 treatment drugs.
“An association of increased overall mortality was identified in patients treated with hydroxychloroquine alone. These findings highlight the importance of awaiting the results of ongoing prospective, randomized, controlled studies before widespread adoption of these drugs,” wrote the authors, who work at the Columbia VA Health Care System in South Carolina, the University of South Carolina and the University of Virginia.
Researchers also looked at whether taking hydroxychloroquine or a combination of hydroxychloroquine and the antibiotic azithromycin, had an effect on whether a patient needed to go on a ventilator.
“In this study, we found no evidence that use of hydroxychloroquine, either with or without azithromycin, reduced the risk of mechanical ventilation in patients hospitalized with Covid-19,” the authors wrote.
Hydroxychloroquine has been used for decades to treat patients with diseases such as malaria, lupus and rheumatoid arthritis.
In another recent study, researchers in France examined medical records for 181 Covid-19 patients who had pneumonia and required supplemental oxygen. About half had taken hydroxychloroquine within 48 hours of being admitted to the hospital, and the other half had not.
It found there was no statistically significant difference in the death rates of the two groups, or their chances of being admitted to the intensive care unit. However, it found eight patients who took the drug developed abnormal heart rhythms and had to stop taking it. This research also has not yet been peer-reviewed or published in a medical journal.
