The clinical trials of chloroquine, an antimalarial drug, carried out in Marseille to treat patients with Covid-19 are "promising" and "will be extended," government spokesman Sibeth Ndiaye said on Tuesday (March 17th). "There are clinical trials on 24 patients, which are promising. The ministry wanted to extend these clinical trials, which will be duplicated on a larger number of patients," she said after a Council ministers.

Chloroquine is an antimalarial used for several decades and marketed in particular under the name of Nivaquine. This treatment is often recommended when planning to go to an area infested with the malaria parasite, transmitted by mosquitoes.

Professor Didier Raoult, who tests chloroquine at the Marseille University Hospital Institute, said on Monday that its effect against the coronavirus was spectacular with the disappearance of the virus in six days from three-quarters of patients.

In a video, the director of the Marseille IHU explains that 24 patients suffering from the coronavirus, took Plaquenil, one of the trade names of chloroquine, and that six days later, only 25% were still carrying the virus while 90% of those who had not received this treatment were still positive.

First positive tests in China

These new clinical trials "will be carried out with a team independent from Professor (Didier) Raoult", who has requested an extension, said Sibeth Ndiaye, stressing with caution that at this stage "we have no scientific evidence" that this treatment works.

Chloroquine is a long-known and inexpensive antimalarial drug. Didier Raoult believes that he has made "dramatic improvements" in infected patients. Before carrying out tests, the infectious disease specialist based on a letter published in the journal BioScience Trends, which takes up a communication from the Chinese government of February 17. It said that chloroquine was part of the therapeutic response to the epidemic and had been tested on around 100 patients in ten hospitals.

Heavy side effects

But several experts call for caution in the absence of further studies and because of its side effects which can be serious, especially in case of overdose. This malaria treatment is usually not recommended for people over 65, precisely the age group in which this coronavirus is the most lethal.

According to Europe 1, many patients are already rushing to pharmacies to buy chloroquine. What Gilbert Deray, nephrologist at the Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital contacted by Europe 1, considers "useless and dangerous". "You have to be very careful because it gives a lot of side effects, and in particular it causes damage to the retina with vision loss that can be irreversible," he warns. Adding that chloroquine also gives "rhythm disturbances that can lead to cardiac arrest".

With AFP

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