Practically 17,000 individuals could have died after taking hydroxycholoroquine in the course of the first wave of COVID, in accordance to a examine by French researchers.
The anti-malaria drug was prescribed to some sufferers hospitalized with COVID-19 in the course of the first wave of the pandemic, ”regardless of the absence of proof documenting its medical advantages,” the researchers level out of their paper, printed within the February subject of Biomedicine & Pharmacotherapy.
Now, researchers have estimated that some 16,990 individuals in six international locations — France, Belgium, Italy, Spain, Turkey and the U.S. — could have died because of this.
That determine stems from a examine printed within the Nature scientific journal in 2021 which reported an 11 % enhance within the mortality fee, linked to its prescription in opposition to COVID-19, due to the potential hostile results like coronary heart rhythm problems, and its use as a substitute of different efficient therapies.
Researchers from universities in Lyon, France, and Québec, Canada, used that determine to research hospitalization information for COVID in every of the six international locations, publicity to hydroxychloroquine and the rise within the relative threat of loss of life linked to the drug.
The truth is, they are saying the determine could also be far greater given the examine solely issues six international locations from March to July 2020, when the drug was prescribed rather more broadly.
Hydroxychloroquine gained prominence partly attributable to French virologist Didier Raoult who had headed the Méditerranée An infection Basis hospital, however was later eliminated amid rising controversy.
It was additionally thought of one thing of a “miracle treatment” by the then-U.S. President Donald Trump, who stated: “What do you need to lose? Take it.”