Paris (AFP)

Twenty-five thousand dead in France for lack of hydroxychloroquine, including his brother-in-law who we would have "let die" by depriving him of this treatment: these violent accusations are worth to the controversial Professor Perronne to be in the viewfinder of the Order doctors and the AP-HP.

The National Council of the Order indicated Thursday that it seized the Departmental Council of the Order of Hauts-de-Seine, on which depends Christian Perronne, head of the infectious diseases department of the Garches hospital. This could potentially lead to disciplinary action.

In addition, the AP-HP (Public Assistance - Hospitals of Paris) seized its ethics bodies, whose opinion is expected "before the end of July", according to a letter of which AFP obtained a copy.

The question is whether "there may be breaches of ethical obligations (...) in a case where comments are made with the authority conferred on a position of responsibility in a public hospital university ", according to this letter of referral signed by the director general of the AP-HP, Martin Hirsch.

Requested by AFP, Professor Perronne could not be reached.

In question, comments he made recently in several media, in full promotion of his accusing book on the management of the Covid-19 crisis, "Is there a mistake that THEY did not commit ".

He said that hydroxychloroquine, a treatment promoted by Professor Didier Raoult, would have prevented 25,000 deaths if it had been widely prescribed in France.

In another television interview, he accused doctors at the Nantes University Hospital of having "allowed his brother-in-law to die" by refusing to prescribe this treatment.

"There is real corruption that has plunged tens of thousands of French people into death," he said, hammering that opponents of hydroxychloroquine are "bought by the pharmaceutical industry.

- Lyme -

These statements outraged many caregivers. "A health crisis does not justify saying, or doing, anything!", Thundered Tuesday in a statement several structures specializing in infectious diseases.

Last week, a petition was launched to ask the Council of the Order to condemn the words of Professor Perronne. It claimed 2,500 signatures on Thursday.

In April, the infectious disease specialist had launched, with the ex-Minister of Health Philippe Douste-Blazy, a petition to soften urgently the possibilities of prescription of hydroxychloroquine.

However, this molecule has not been proven to be effective in the treatment of Covid-19, according to most studies. In addition, health authorities and a large majority of scientists warn against its undesirable effects.

This is why the prescription of hydroxychloroquine is not authorized in France against Covid-19.

This does not prevent him from keeping strong supporters: they see in the reluctance to use this drug the sign of a supposed collusion with the laboratories which manufacture other treatments, despite the accumulation of studies against it.

"Let's support Pr Perronne and Raoult against the lobbies!", Tweeted the president of the Debout la France party, Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, on Thursday.

Even before this controversy, Christian Perronne was controversial in the medical world. He is indeed part of the minority of doctors who believe in the existence of a chronic form of Lyme disease (transmitted by ticks), which is not scientifically established.

In response to the petition against his comments on hydroxychloroquine, an association of Lyme patients also launched another petition to support him, which claimed Thursday 72,000 signatures.

Finally, a photo that circulated widely on social media on Thursday, and seems to have been taken in the hospital, shows eight women in white coats, three of whom are kneeling, facing Professor Perronne with messages of support written on the back.

© 2020 AFP