The World Health Organization(WHO) has temporarily halted the global trial of hydroxychloroquine, an antimalarial drug deemed to be effective in Covid-19 treatment.
WHO said it needed to collect more data on the safety and effectiveness of the drug before it is subjected to trials on humans.
The suspension of the hydroxychloroquine was in line with a medical publication by The Lancet lab which revealed that people taking the antimalarial drug we’re at risk of having heart problems or even dying due to heart complications.
“The executive group behind WHO’s global “Solidarity” trial met on Saturday and decided to conduct a comprehensive review of all available data on hydroxychloroquine and that its use in the trial would be suspended for now,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
The Lancet lab published that it had not seen any benefits of the antimalarial drug and it was causing more harm than the gain to the health of humans.
“Lancet has been unable to confirm the benefit of hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine, when used alone or with a macrolide, on in-hospital outcomes for COVID-19. Each of these drug regimens was associated with decreased in-hospital survival and an increased frequency of ventricular arrhythmias when used for the treatment of COVID-19.”
On its side, the WHO said that it had to act cautiously in conducting a new study even if the drug had shown no negative signs.
We’re just acting on an abundance of caution based on the recent results of all the studies to ensure that we can continue safely with that arm of the trial,” said WHO emergency Chief Michael Ryan.
Hydroxychloroquine has however proven to be effective in the treatment of other illnesses including Lupus, and respond rheumatoid arthritis.
Hundreds of other drugs are currently in labs for trials but there is little hope of finding the vaccine for Coronavirus. Who knows if a cure is not found, the virus might end up being an endemic like HIV.