HYDROXYCHLOROQUINE BANNED, With no promise of vaccine around the corner, humanity is truly at danger due to the Coronavirus. This has led to a series of tests held by medical staff all around the world.
World Health Organization recently banned the clinical trials of Hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for COVID-19 in several countries due to the potential health risks from the drug.
What does Hydroxychloroquine do?
Hydroxychloroquine is a range of drugs called antimalarial which are used for treating malaria. It is also used for treating rheumatoid arthritis and systemic lupus erythematosus.
What led to people using the drug against COVID-19?
Due to a lack of information, people are getting influenced by possibilities. Last week when Donald Trump announced he is in taking the medication for prevention of COVID-19.
Health Minister of Brazil too recommended the use of the medication for treating mild cases of COVID-19.
This led to the mass purchasing of the aforementioned drug.
Panic and misinformation have given rise to the use of this medicine.
On Monday, however, WHO decided to ban the clinical trials of the drugs when the weekly medical journal, The Lancet published that the prescribed drugs have not only shown no positive response to COVID-19 but can also increase the risk of death in patients.
After this, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a virtual press conference “The Executive Group has implemented a temporary pause of the hydroxychloroquine arm within the Solidarity Trial while the safety data is reviewed by the Data Safety Monitoring Board.”
The Solidarity Trial is an executive group where several countries have sent their patients to for drug trials against Coronavirus. They have banned the present trials of hydroxychloroquine after The Lancet studied the reports of 96,000 patients out of whom at least 15000 were given the hydroxychloroquine or any form of chloroquine. On observation, it was published that patients subjected to the drug had a higher chance of death and heart arrhythmia. The death rate among hydroxychloroquine treated patients was 18%, chloroquine treated patients 16.4%.
Because of the report, the World Health Organization immediately banned the clinical trials in several countries, although temporarily.
“The other arms of the trial are continuing,” cited Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. He also added that the two drugs, “are accepted as generally safe for use in patients with autoimmune diseases or malaria.”
Soumya Swaminathan, chief scientist of WHO mentioned that the suspension of the trials and enrollment of patients into the Solidarity Trial by several countries is temporary so far.
