How Effective is Malaria Drug Against COVID-19

The malaria treatment repeatedly championed by U.S. President Donald Trump as a “game changer” within the fight against the novel coronavirus has again did not show a benefit in patients hospitalized with COVID-19, consistent with a study released on Thursday.

While the study being published within the New England Journal of drugs had certain limitations, doctors reported that the utilization of hydroxycholoquine neither lessened the necessity for patients requiring breathing assistance nor the danger of death.
“We didn’t see any association between getting this medicine and therefore the chance of dying or being intubated,” lead researcher Dr. Neil Schluger told Reuters during a interview . “The patients who got the drug didn’t seem to try to to any better.”

Among patients given hydroxychloroquine, 32.3% ended up needing a ventilator or dying, compared with 14.9% of patients who weren't given the drug. But doctors were more likely to offer hydroxychloroquine to sicker patients, so researchers at New York-Presbyterian Hospital and Columbia University Irving center adjusted the rates to account for that. They concluded that the drug might not have hurt patients, but it clearly didn't help.
Decades old hydroxychloroquine, which is additionally wont to treat lupus and atrophic arthritis , also showed no benefit when combined with the antibiotic azithromycin, Schluger’s team reported. Azithromycin alone also showed no benefit.
Last month, doctors at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs reported that hydroxychloroquine didn't help COVID-19 patients and might pose a better risk of death.
That analysis of medical records showed a death rate of 28% when the drug was given additionally to plain treatments, compared to 11% with standard care alone.
In the latest study, 811 patients got hydroxychloroquine and 565 didn't .
Because they weren't randomly assigned to receive hydroxychloroquine or a placebo, “the study shouldn't be taken to rule out either benefit or harm” for the drug, researchers said. Randomized trials, the gold standard for tests of latest therapies, should continue, they added. But for now, “the guidance in our hospital has changed so we don’t recommend giving hydroxychloroquine to hospitalized patients,” said Dr. Schluger, chief of the division of pulmonary, allergy and important care medicine at Irving.
Smaller studies, including one wiped out China, had suggested hydroxychloroquine could be useful, “but these were tiny studies and not of excellent quality. People seized on them because patients were dying,” he said.
There are currently no approved treatments for COVID-19, although Gilead Sciences Inc’s experimental antiviral remdesivir last week receive emergency use authorization from U.S. regulators.

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