The World Health Organization said it’s not clear whether the anti-malarial drug President Trump is using is an effective preventative treatment for the coronavirus and recommended that the medication only be taken in clinical trials.
Dr. Michael Ryan, the WHO’s emergencies chief, noted the lack of proof to support the claim that hydroxychloroquine can treat the coronavirus on Wednesday.
“Every sovereign nation, particularly those with effective regulatory authorities, is in a position to advise its own citizens regarding the use of any drug,” he said, according to the Associated Press. “I would point out, however, that at this stage [neither] hydroxychloroquine nor chloroquine have been as yet found to be effective in the treatment of COVID-19 or in the prophylaxis against coming down with the disease,” Ryan said.
“In fact, the opposite — in that warnings have been issued by many authorities regarding the potential side effects of the drug,” he said. “As WHO, we would advise that for COVID-19, these drugs be reserved for use within such trials.”
Trump revealed earlier this week that he’s taking hydroxychloroquine, which has not been proven to prevent or treat the coronavirus. The president has frequently promoted the medication during the pandemic because it has shown promising signs of being able to treat COVID-19, but the medical experts working with the administration’s response team have been hesitant to do the same.
The WHO is overseeing trials on four possible treatments for the coronavirus: remdesivir (which was previously tested as an Ebola treatment), the HIV medications lopinavir and ritonavir, multiple sclerosis treatment interferon beta-1a, and related drugs chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, which have been used to treat illnesses such as malaria and rheumatoid arthritis.
