The regulator of the drug in the United States (FDA) authorized, Sunday, March 29, the use to treat Covid-19, only in the hospital, of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, antimalarial treatments on which President Donald Trump has the greatest hopes,

In a statement, the Department of Health said the FDA gave the green light for these treatments to be "dispensed and prescribed by doctors to adolescent and adult hospital patients with Covid-19, as appropriate, when a clinical trial is not available or doable ".

The American president, whose country has more than 140,000 coronavirus patients and 2,489 dead, according to the count of Johns-Hopkins University, had praised on March 24 the merits of this drug. "There is a good chance it could have a huge impact. It would be a godsend if it worked," he said.

>> Read: Coronavirus: the prescription of Plaquenil, derived from chloroquine, now authorized in France

Donald Trump also estimated on Sunday that the number of daily coronavirus deaths in the United States would peak "probably" in two weeks. "We will be on the road to recovery" by June 1, he added.

The American president also announced that he extended until April 30 the recommendations made 15 days ago on social distancing. He is thus revising his position expressed at the beginning of last week, when he said he wanted to restart the US economy for Easter, that is, on April 12.

Ongoing clinical trials

Professor Didier Raoult, French infectiologist at the head of the University Hospitals of Marseille (HUM), defends treatment based on chloroquine and has advanced studies which have not entirely convinced the scientific community, in particular due to significant methodological flaws like the absence of a control group.

Two American medical bodies, the National Institute of Health (NIH) and the Biomedical Research and Development Authority (Barda), are working on clinical trials.

A trial according to Professor Raoult's protocol, with hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin (an antibiotic), will soon start in New York.

>> Read: Immunologist and critic of Trump, doctor Fauci targeted by the alt-right

In Europe, a trial called "Discovery" has been launched in several countries to test four treatments, including hydroxycholoroquine, on 3,200 patients including 800 severe cases in France.

WHO has also launched a large international clinical trial.

However, the American health authorities have warned the general public that they should not take self-medication. An Arizona resident who ingested chloroquine phosphate, which is used to disinfect aquariums, died.

With AFP

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