Covid-19: hydroxychloroquine is ineffective on "severe cases"

"We have not observed any effect of hydroxychloroquine, as monotherapy, to treat severe cases". According to Professor Matthieu Mahévas of Henri Mondor Hospital (AP-HP), interviewed on May 15 by France 24, there is nothing today to say that hydroxychloroquine improves the condition of patients hospitalized in severe stages.

"We do not observe any significant effect, at this stage of our research, on the passages in resuscitation or on the weaning in oxygen", explains the person in charge of a new study on the drug acclaimed by the Marseilles professor Didier Raoult.

If the French study was not conducted on randomized (randomly selected) groups, this is the case of two Chinese studies published at the same time and which reach the same conclusions.

"Randomization is the best way to conduct a study," explains Matthieu Mahévas, "but it poses ethical problems because some patients refuse to be drawn, and also logistical because they require more time. We opted for a observational study on two comparable groups and then we removed the analysis bias ".

The scientific debate around the use of chloroquine, an anti-malaria, and its derivative hydroxychloroquine, used to treat autoimmune diseases, agitates the scientific world in the context of the fight against Covid-19.

More than two hundred studies are currently underway around the world to evaluate the effectiveness of this treatment, already tested in many countries. Matthieu Mahévas, for his part, calls for caution: "We must be humble: Covid-19 is a new disease, we do not know it well, only the reproduction of data and randomized studies will allow us to have certainties ".

Finally, the professor recalls that the French study is based on the use of hydroxychloroquine as monotherapy for severe cases only and does not shed any light on the use of this drug at other stages of the disease. .

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