Hydroxychloroquine, no more effective than other treatments against Covid-19 (study) - France 24

Washington (AFP)

Hydroxychloroquine, an antimalarial that could be a "gift from the sky" in the fight against coronavirus according to Donald Trump, and whose use is debated in many countries, is not more effective than the treatments already existing to fight against the symptoms of Covid-19, according to a Chinese study.

The study, published by the Zhejiang University newspaper on March 6, looked at 30 patients with Covid-19, half of whom had taken hydroxychloroquine.

After seven days, 13 of the 15 patients who followed this treatment tested negative, which means that Covid-19 had disappeared from their body. For the group that did not receive it, this figure was 14.

The median time taken by the two groups to heal was significantly similar.

But the sample used is too small to be considered significant.

A recent French study, involving the same number of patients, showed that hydroxychloroquine, a derivative of chloroquine (their molecules are close), was particularly effective in fighting Covid-19, especially when taken with azithromycin, an antibiotic.

Chloroquine is an inexpensive antimalarial used for several decades and marketed in particular under the name of Nivaquine.

The World Health Organization calls for caution regarding chloroquine, due to the small number of patients who have used it.

Donald Trump announced last week that his government was working with pharmaceutical companies to facilitate access to the drug.

He added on Monday that this treatment could be "a gift from heaven" capable of "changing the situation".

Scientists are asking for more patience, while waiting for a larger and more representative sample of patients to be tested, over longer periods of time.

Donald Trump cited the case of a man in Florida who claims that the antimalarial drug "saved his life". But we learned at the same time of the death in Arizona of a man in his sixties who had ingested chloroquine phosphate.

His wife, who had been placed in intensive care, said the couple had ingested too much of the aquarium care product.

© 2020 AFP