Study: hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine do not help COVID-19-treatment
Hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine are used during the current Coronavirus pandemic, for the treatment of patients with COVID-19. But a new study has now shown that these drugs have no Benefit; on the contrary, a higher mortality rate and, in particular, an increased risk for heart-rhythm disorders, had been Treated.
US President, Donald Trump has called hydroxychloroquine recently as a “gift from God”. He is a Malaria drug as a COVID-19-prophylaxis. The effectiveness is not proven yet. Instead, a study has now shown that this drug, as well as chloroquine, seems to be a danger to patients.
Higher risk for life-threatening heart rhythm disorders
According to a recent communication research has evaluated team of the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, in collaboration with the Department of cardiology at the heart center of the University hospital of Zurich results of a worldwide observational study for patients who were hospitalized because of COVID-19,.
This COVID-19-Ill patients who had been treated with hydroxychloroquine, or chloroquine (with or without a macrolide antibiotic) showed, in particular, are at a higher risk for life-threatening heart rhythm disorders.
The findings of the researchers have been published in the prestigious journal “The Lancet”.
Malaria drug used for the treatment of COVID-19
Hydroxychloroquine is a drug approved for the treatment of Malaria. Currently, the drug is also used against the by the novel Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 caused disease COVID-19. This is not harmless.
The German Federal Institute for drugs and medical devices (BfArM) has already pointed out in the last month, in a communication to the fact that the European medicines Agency (EMA) on their website to the risk of serious side effects with the use of hydroxychloroquine (and chloroquine) reminds.
The scientists from the USA and Switzerland found that these drugs can be dangerous.
No scientific evidence for the effectiveness of
“Hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine do not show any Benefit in patients who were hospitalized with Covid-19,” says Mandeep R. Mehra, MD, Executive Director of the Center for Advanced Heart Disease, Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
“The data point to an increased risk of death. We also observed a fourfold increase in the number of heart rhythm disorders in COVID-19-patients who had been treated with hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine,“ says the researcher.
“For the effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine in Covid-19 there is no scientific evidence,” adds Prof. Frank Ruschitzka, head of the Department of cardiology at the heart center of the University hospital of Zurich.
“On the contrary, in particular in the case of Covid-19-patients with heart diseases, we observed severe side effects, especially life-threatening heart rhythm disorders. Hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine should not be used, therefore, in the case of COVID-19 before us the results of further, currently ongoing randomized clinical trials are available“.
Data from nearly 100,000 Patients
The information, according to the research team, led by Mehra and Ruschitzka of the study use of the Surgical Outcomes Collaborative database, an international registry, which includes anonymized data of 671 hospitals from all continents.
The analysis took into account data from more than 96,000 patients, and in patients who had been hospitalized with COVID-19.
Almost 15,000 of these Patients had been treated with the antimalarial drug chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine, with or without antibiotics (macrolides, such as Azithromycin and Clarithromycin) early on, after the COVID-19-diagnosis.
The researchers found that a total of 10.698 patients who had received one or the other of these remedies, died in hospital (11.1 percent) and that 85.334 and dismissed survived could be.
Still no definitive conclusions
The research team compared this mortality with that of a control group, taking into account the age, gender and risk factors.
As it says in the message, the mortality rate in the control group, 9.3 per cent. Chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine, alone or in combination with a macrolide were linked with an increased risk for death in the hospital with COVID-19.
In the therapy groups, a new rhythm disturbance of the heart heard between four and eight percent of Patients, compared with 0.3 percent of patients in the control group.
The authors of the study noted that the results of randomized clinical studies have still to be awaited before definitive conclusions can be drawn regarding the risk due to chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine. (ad)