Hydroxychloroquine linked to increased risk of cardiac arrhythmias. In a new report, a team of pharmacists and clinicians found evidence suggesting that patients who received hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19 were at increased risk of electrical changes to the heart and cardiac arrhythmias. The combination of hydroxychloroquine with azithromycin was linked to even greater changes compared to hydroxychloroquine alone. Source 4f.
Further evidence does not support hydroxychloroquine for patients with COVID-19. The anti-inflammatory drug hydroxychloroquine does not significantly reduce admission to intensive care or death in patients hospitalized with pneumonia due to COVID-19, finds a study from France. And a randomized clinical trial from China shows that hospitalized patients with mild to moderate persistent covid-19 who received hydroxychloroquine did not clear the virus more quickly than those receiving standard care. Source 3d.
Hydroxychloroquine, the drug taken by President Trump to ward of COVID-19, doesn't prevent coronavirus infection, study finds. The new study by University of Minnesota and published in the New England Journal of Medicine showed the drug wasn't better than a placebo in a clinical trial involving 821 people. Ref. USAToday.
Hydroxychloroquine is no longer authorized by the FDA to treat coronavirus. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has revoked emergency authorization of hydroxychloroquine, the drug touted by President Donald Trump as a coronavirus treatment. The decision was based on new evidence that it was no longer reasonable to believe the drug "May be effective in diagnosing, treating or preventing" the coronavirus and the illness it causes, COVID-19, the agency said. Ref. USAToday.
Patients reported international hydroxychloroquine shortages due to COVID-19. A new study shows that patients with rheumatic diseases across Africa, Southeast Asia, the Americas and Europe had trouble filling their prescriptions of antimalarial drugs, including hydroxychloroquine, during the 2020 global coronavirus pandemic, when antimalarials were touted as a possible COVID-19 treatment. Patients who could not access their antimalarial drugs faced worse physical and mental health outcomes as a result. Source 1z.