Another Study Questions Safety of Hydroxychloroquine

Hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine did not improve in-hospital outcomes in patients with COVID-19, according to a recent study published in The Lancet that enrolled more than 96,000 patients.

The study suggested that the regimen, when used for the treatment of COVID-19, decreased in-hospital survival and increased frequency of ventricular arrhythmias.

“This multinational, observational, real-world study of patients with COVID-19 requiring hospitalisation found that the use of a regimen containing hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine (with or without a macrolide) was associated with no evidence of benefit, but instead was associated with an increase in the risk of ventricular arrhythmias and a greater hazard for in-hospital death with COVID-19. These findings suggest that these drug regimens should not be used outside of clinical trials and urgent confirmation from randomised clinical trials is needed,” the researchers wrote.

Read the full article here.

Reference

Mehra MR, Desai SS, Ruschitzka F, Patel AN, et al. Hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine with or without a macrolide for treatment of COVID-19: a multinational registry analysis. Lancet. 2020;doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(20)31180-6.