As scientists work to find effective treatments for COVID-19, a new study confirms previous research showing that the drug hydroxychloroquine is not the answer.
In the study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) and funded in part by the pharmaceutical company EMS Pharma, the researchers analyzed the effectiveness of the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine and the antibiotic azithromycin in treating patients with COVID-19.
Hospitalized patients with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 were randomly assigned to receive standard care for the disease (such as the use of glucocorticoids, antibiotics, and antiviral agents), standard care plus hydroxychloroquine (at a dose of 400 mg twice daily). or standard care plus hydroxychloroquine (in the same dose) plus azithromycin at a dose of 500 mg once a day for seven days.
The researchers found that in patients with mild to moderate COVID-19, hydroxychloroquine used with or without azithromycin “did not improve clinical status at 15 days compared to standard care.”
In addition, elevated liver enzymes and heart rhythm problems were “more frequent” in patients who received hydroxychloroquine with azithromycin or hydroxychloroquine alone, according to the study.
The latest study results don’t surprise experts in light of previous research that had already dashed hopes of hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for coronavirus, along with the Food and Drug Administration’s warning warning about using the drug outside of the hospital or clinical trial settings. due to “reports of serious heart rhythm problems and other safety problems, including disorders of the blood and lymphatic system, kidney injury, and liver problems and failure.”
“While the initial potential for hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin, which consisted largely of small case studies, was reported, the validity and reliability of these findings were always in doubt,” said Dr. Iahn Gonsenhauser, director of quality and safety at the patient at Ohio Wexner State University. Medical Center, he tells Yahoo Life. “Not many of my colleagues in the scientific community are very surprised by the most recent NEJM study.”
Dr. Steven Nissen, academic director of the Cleveland Clinic Heart, Vascular, and Thoracic Institute, calls the search for hydroxychloroquine as a “pure insanity” treatment strategy and tells Yahoo Life that “there has never been any good solid scientific evidence that it does. ” job.”
Additionally, Dr. Dean Winslow, an infectious disease physician at Stanford Health Care, tells Yahoo Life that he was “very concerned” about the combination of drugs used in the study, which may cause changes in heart rhythm.
“Both macrolide antibiotics [like azithromycin] and antimalarial drugs [like hydroxychloroquine] have the potential to prolong the QT interval [the time between the heart muscle contracting and relaxing] on electrocardiograms and can cause fatal arrhythmias and increased mortality, “he explains.
Winslow adds: “This is further proof that this is not a winning strategy. I think we have studied it enough.
Nissen agrees and says, “It is time to stop chasing this. It’s time to move on and study something that has a chance to help people. “
He also expressed frustration at the way that treatments that have not been fully investigated are advertised prematurely. “Despair is not a scientific strategy,” says Nissen. “We have people throwing spaghetti on the wall and seeing what sticks. We need a coordinated strategy at the national level. [of scientists] who understand clinical trials, and we just don’t have it. “
Meanwhile, there are several treatments that have been beneficial for coronavirus patients, according to Gonsenhauser: “Convalescent plasma, a specific component of blood donated by COVID survivors that includes the immune cells that your body generated to fight the virus; dexamethasone [a medical steroid], which has been used to fight extreme inflammation for a long time and has been shown to improve results; and remdesivir, a drug that limits virus replication and has been shown to decrease the time it takes to recover from COVID, but may or may not improve the risk of death. “
Another promising drug currently under study is the oral medication favipiravir. “So far it appears to be very safe and well tolerated overall,” says Winslow.
He notes that although we are “progressing slowly” in terms of treatment strategies, Winslow explains that this is because the coronavirus is a challenging and “very virulent” pathogen.
“COVID is demanding an incredible amount of attention and work,” says Gonsenhauser. “Vaccine studies seem to move incredibly fast, and it seems that we learn more about the virus every day … It would be surprising if no additional treatments are identified, but at the same time, viruses are very difficult [and] science is complicated, so it wouldn’t be terribly surprising if the discoveries are limited. “
He adds: “Meanwhile, masks for everyone, social distance and hand hygiene are the best efforts to focus.”
The study authors did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Yahoo Life.
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