The World Health Organization has temporarily halted studying hydroxychloroquine as a potential Covid-19 treatment due to safety concerns, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said during a media briefing in Geneva on Monday.
The decision was made after an observational study published Friday in the medical journal The Lancet described how seriously ill Covid-19 patients who were treated with hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine were more likely to die. Tedros said that an independent executive group is now reviewing the use of hydroxychloroquine in WHO's Solidarity Trial. The executive group represents 10 of the participating countries in the trial.
"The review will consider data collected so far in the Solidarity Trial and, in particular robust randomized available data, to adequately evaluate the potential benefits and harms from this drug," Tedros said. "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."
"This concern relates to the use of hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine in Covid-19," he said. "I wish to reiterate that these drugs are accepted as generally safe for use in patients with autoimmune diseases or malaria."
Dr. Soumya Swaminathan, WHO chief scientist, said Monday the trial has only been using hydroxychloroquine, not the more toxic chloroquine.
President Donald Trump claimed on May 18 that he was taking daily doses of hydroxychloroquine.
Members of the National Guard communicate with individuals at a newly opened Coronavirus testing site in Brooklyn on April 11
Trump said he has taken the antimalarial drug after consulting the White House doctor, though stopped short of saying his physician had actually recommended the drug.
Trump said he hadn't been exposed to coronavirus, and he started taking the drug because he had heard from frontline responders who sent him letters saying they were taking it preventatively.
Trump's comments about hydroxychloroquine have led to the soaring sales of the drug.
The World Health Organization has temporarily halted studying hydroxychloroquine as a potential Covid-19 treatment due to safety concerns, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said during a media briefing in Geneva on Monday.
President Donald Trump claimed on May 18 that he was taking daily doses of hydroxychloroquine.
