Two new studies – one in Britain looking at the death rate of patients and the other in the United States in reducing symptoms – now find the ineffectiveness of hydroxychloroquine treatment for COVID -19.
After a great first controversial statistical study published in The Lancet, two new scientific studies once again attest to the ineffectiveness of hydroxychloroquine against COVID-19. The antiviral, generally used to treat malaria and certain autoimmune diseases, would do absolutely nothing to reduce the mortality rate of patients infected with the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 according to a British study and an American study. The first, currently in pre-publication, is the result of a series of clinical trials set up in emergency by the British government to test different remedies. Nicknamed Recovery (for “Randomised Evaluation of COVID-19 Therapy”), they notably revealed that the dexamethasone could increase the chances of survival in the most serious cases. In its so-called randomized trials, various British hospital departments have given hydroxychloroquine as a treatment to patients without knowing it. It was only at the time of recovering and compiling the data thus generated, and then comparing them with those of a control group of untreated patients, that the researchers were able to draw their conclusions. In the end, after 28 days of treatment, 26.8% of the 1,561 people tested died. In comparison, among the 3,155 people in the control group who did not receive hydroxychloroquine, the mortality rate was 25%. In other words, the antiviral unfortunately did not change anything for the sick. Worse still, as British researchers report, treatment has often been “Associated with an increase in hospitalization time and the risk of worsening the disease.”
Hydroxychloroquine neither cures nor alleviates symptoms of COVID-19
As for the second study in question, recently published in the journal Annals of Internal Medecine and carried out by researchers from the University of Minnesota, in the United States, same observation at the symptomatic level: taking hydroxychloroquine does not change anything. The Minnesota researchers did not conduct their research in a hospital environment but rather with light patients, contaminated by relatives whose infection was confirmed. During two weeks of isolation, 500 volunteers daily assessed the intensity of their symptoms, including coughing, fatigue and migraine. Doctors gave hydroxychloroquine to 201 people and a placebo to 194 other volunteers. In 24% of the first group – against 30% of the second – the treatment did not lead to any reduction in symptoms. Last June, the same research team published a study in The New England Journal of Medecine, claiming that taking preventive hydroxychloroquine (within four days after exposure to a sick individual) was also ineffective. To conclude, “Hydroxychloroquine should not be used in hospitals”, says Martin Landray, a researcher at the University of Oxford involved in Recovery trials, at Wired. Point final ?
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