The World Health Organization has suspended the trial of the controversial drug hydroxychloroquine due to safety concerns, Axios reported. The report comes just a few weeks after President Trump announced he had been taking the drug as a preventative measure against infection of COVID-19.
Hydroxychloroquine has been touted by Trump as a treatment for COVID-19, though evidence that the drug, which is typically used to treat malaria, is effective against COVID-19 has not been proven. The FDA has also issued a warning that the drug should only be administered in hospitals due to the heart risks.
WHO decided to shut down its trial of the drug as a COVID-19 treatment after patients who took it were more likely to die or develop irregular heart rhythm and potentially sudden cardiac death than those who did nothing. Those findings were recently published in The Lancet, which reviewed 96,000 hospitalized COVID-19 patients in six continents between Dec. 20, 2019 and April 14, 2020.
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Amy joined TriMed Media as a Senior Writer for HealthExec after covering home care for three years. When not writing about all things healthcare, she fulfills her lifelong dream of becoming a pirate by sailing in regattas and enjoying rum. Fun fact: she sailed 333 miles across Lake Michigan in the Chicago Yacht Club "Race to Mackinac."