Coronavirus: drug touted by Donald Trump could cause death and heart problems, hydroxychloroquine study finds

Name: Coronavirus: Trump says he takes malaria drug despite scientists’ concerns and no proven benefits
Uploaded: 2020-05-25T15:00:06.000Z
Duration: 1 min 39 s
Description: Coronavirus: Trump says he takes malaria drug despite scientists’ concerns and no proven benefits

Patients treated with hydroxychloroquine had higher rates of mortality, according to research on nearly 100,000 cases around the world

Randomised clinical trials urgently needed to confirm results, according to authors of new paper

2-MIN READ2-MIN

Hydroxychloroquine is not beneficial in the treatment of Covid-19, according to a worldwide study. Photo: AFP

Liu Zhen

Published: 11:00pm, 25 May 2020Updated: 2:24am, 26 May 2020

A drug touted by US President Donald Trump as a treatment for Covid-19 has no benefit on hospitalised patients and could raise the risk of heart problems and death, according to a study of nearly 100,000 cases.

The conclusions were based on data from 671 hospitals on six continents, and released in a paper published in the peer-reviewed medical journal The Lancet on Friday.

The study on the antimalarial hydroxychloroquine was released just days after Trump revealed he was taking the medication.

“I’m taking it for about a week and a half now and I’m still here, I’m still here,” he said last week.

01:39

Coronavirus: Trump says he takes malaria drug despite scientists’ concerns and no proven benefits

The paper assessed the cases of 96,032 hospitalised patients, of whom 14,888 were treated with hydroxychloroquine, chloroquine, or a combination of the drugs with a class of antibiotics called macrolides.

There has not been a randomised trial on the use of hydroxychloroquine to treat Covid-19, but the study is the biggest and most comprehensive of its kind on the drug so far.