New Delhi: The WORLD Health Organisation (WHO) has decided to resume the hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) trail to treat Covid-19 patients. The WHO had suspended the HCQ segment of its trial based on this study published on May 22.
The World Health Organization said Wednesday that it will resume recruiting patients for the hydroxychloroquine arm of a global trial called Solidarity. The agency had paused the branch of the experiment, which compares the impact of a number of treatment regimens, after the drug was linked to heart risks in research published in the Lancet, a medical journal.
The WHO announced resumption of its hydroxychloroquine trials after The Lancet issued ‘expression of concern’ over a large-scale study that led to temporary suspension of testing of the drug, which otherwise could be a potential treatment for Covid-19.
The study said it had failed to find any benefit of HCQ or CQ (chloroquine, which too is anti-malarial) in Covid treatment. And that these were associated with “decreased in-hospital survival and an increased frequency of ventricular arrhythmias” when used for Covid treatment.
The WHO paused the hydroxychloroquine component as a precaution “because of concerns raised about the safety of the drug,” Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a press briefing. After a safety panel review, “the members recommend that there are no reasons to modify trial protocol.”
