Malaria drug promoted by Donald Trump fails to prevent COVID-19: Study

The malaria drug, hydroxychloroquine, promoted by US President Donald Trump as a treatment for COVID-19 was ineffective in preventing infection, according to a recent clinical trial. Trump has been promoting the malaria drug as a miracle cure and his vocal support also kicked off a heated debate and raised expectations that the drug could help fight COVID-19. However, as per the recent study, the drug was no better than placebo. 

In the first major study comparing HCQ to placebo to gauge its effect against coronavirus, the researchers at the University of Minnesota tested 821 people who had recently been exposed to the virus or lived in a high-risk household. The scientists found that 11.8 per cent subjects were given HCQ developed symptoms compatible with COVID-19, compared with 14.3 per cent who got a placebo. Dr David Boulware, who is the trial’s lead researcher and an infectious disease physician at the University of Minnesota, reportedly said that their data is pretty clear and the drug does not really work. 

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Several trials of the drug have also been stopped recently over concerns about its safety for treating COVID-19 that were raised by health regulators and previous less rigorous studies. While Trump is a particularly strong supporter and even described the dug as ‘game-changer’, the British medical journal and the Lancet reported that the coronavirus patients receiving hydroxychloroquine were more likely to die and experience dangerous irregular heartbeats. Medicine agencies in France and Italy also said that the drug should not be used for coronavirus outside clinical trials. 

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EU governments, WHO pause HCQ trial 

With rising concerns over safety issues, recently several European countries including France, Italy and Belgium also paused that large trial of HCQ. A university in Germany has also reportedly suspended a clinical study using the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine for coronavirus. Additionally, Italian health authorities also concluded that the risks, coupled with little evidence hydroxychloroquine was beneficial against COVID-19, merited a ban outside of clinical trials.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation said that a safety panel would evaluate by mid-June the drug’s use in its multi-country trials of potential COVID-19 treatments. “A final decision on the harm, benefit or lack of benefit of hydroxychloroquine will be made once the evidence has been reviewed by the Data Safety Monitoring Board,” WHO said in a statement. 

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