The World Health Organisation (WHO) says it has temporarily suspended the clinical trial of hydroxychloroquine as a potential treatment for COVID-19.
The decision, according to the Director-General of the UN health agency, Tedros Ghebreyesus, who spoke during a virtual press conference on Monday, said that a study in the Lancet indicating that use of the drug on COVID-19 patients could increase the mortality rate.
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The study, titled “Chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19: Why might they be hazardous?” published last Friday, highlighted that patients who took chloroquine, which hydroxychloroquine is derived from, were also more likely to develop irregular heart rhythms.
Mr Ghebreyesus also said the executive group of the Solidarity Trial, in which hundreds of hospitals across several countries have enrolled patients to test several possible treatments for the virus, as a measure of precaution, had suspended trials using the drug.
He stated:
The executive group has implemented a temporary pause of the hydroxychloroquine arm within the Solidarity Trial while the data is reviewed by the Data Safety Monitoring Board.
The other arms of the trial are continuing,” he said.
He also said this decision only applies to the use of the hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine in COVID-19 patients.
I wish to reiterate that these drugs are accepted as generally safe for use in patients with autoimmune diseases or malaria.
Meanwhile, U.S. President, Donald Trump, had, at a press briefing in the White House, said that he had been using hydroxychloroquine to protect himself against COVID-19.
However, Nigeria’s Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19, at a daily briefing, warned Nigerians against using the drug.
It said the drug has not been declared a cure for the disease and further warned of the possibility of chloroquine poisoning if one indulges in self-medication with the drug.
Chloroquine is a synthetic drug introduced in the 1940s. It is a member of an important series of chemically related agents known as quinoline derivatives, while Hydroxychloroquine is a related compound that was introduced in 1955 and used against tropical diseases such as malaria.