A massive study published Friday of 96,000 patients who took an anti-malarial drug touted by President Trump as a potential “game changer” to treat COVID-19 found that the drug increases the risk of heart complications and death.
In a new report published Friday by the medical journal the Lancet, researchers compiled medical records from 96,032 COVID-19 patients from 671 hospitals across six continents. About 15,000 patients were given hydroxychloroquine, which Trump has said he is taking as a prophylactic measure, or its relative chloroquine, and the study found that the drug was ineffective at treating patients with the coronavirus.
Instead, researchers found that patients on hydroxychloroquine had a 34% increased risk of dying and a 137% increased risk of life-threatening heart arrhythmia. For those taking hydroxychloroquine in combination with an antibiotic, chloroquine alone, or chloroquine with an antibiotic, the risks were even higher.
“It’s one thing not to have benefit, but this shows distinct harm,” Eric Topol, a cardiologist and director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute, told the Washington Post. “If there was ever hope for this drug, this is the death of it.”
Trump revealed earlier this week that he has been taking hydroxychloroquine for a “couple of weeks,” even though the Food and Drug Administration warned last month against taking the drug outside of a hospital setting and without a COVID-19 diagnosis.
There have been at least 10 studies of hydroxychloroquine’s efficacy treating the coronavirus, and each has found scant evidence that the drug can treat the virus, let alone prevent it. However, the drug has long been known to come with the risk of dangerous side effects, specifically irregular heartbeat and other cardiovascular issues.
