As researchers work on finding efficient treatments against COVID-19, one brand-new research study verifies previous research study that shows the drug hydroxychloroquine isn’t the response.
In the study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine( NEJM) and funded in part by the pharmaceutical business EMS Pharma, scientists looked at the effectiveness of the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine and the antibiotic azithromycin in treating COVID-19 patients.
Hospitalized clients with presumed or confirmed COVID-19 were randomly designated to receive standard care for the disease (such as making use of glucocorticoids, antibiotic representatives and antiviral agents), basic care plus hydroxychloroquine (at a dose of 400 mg twice daily) or standard care plus hydroxychloroquine (at the exact same dose) plus azithromycin at a dose of 500 mg once daily for 7 days.
The researchers found that in patients with moderate to moderate COVID-19, hydroxychloroquine used with or without azithromycin “did not improve medical status at 15 days as compared with standard care.”
What’s more, elevated liver enzymes and heart rhythm problems were “more regular” in patients who received either hydroxychloroquine with azithromycin or hydroxychloroquine alone, according to the study.
The current study results do not come as a surprise to experts because of previous research study that had already rushed expect hydroxychloroquine as a coronavirus treatment, along with the Fda‘s cautionary warning about using the drug beyond health center or medical trial settings because of “reports of severe heart rhythm issues and other security concerns, consisting of blood and lymph system disorders, kidney injuries and liver problems and failure.”
” While there was preliminary potential reported for hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin, which mostly included small case research studies, the credibility and dependability of these findings were constantly in concern,” Dr. Iahn Gonsenhauser, primary quality and client security officer at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, informs Yahoo Life. “Few of my associates in the scientific community are extremely surprised by the latest NEJM research study.”
Dr. Steven Nissen, chief scholastic officer for the Cleveland Center Heart, Vascular and Thoracic Institute, calls the pursuit of hydroxychloroquine as a treatment method “sheer insanity” and informs Yahoo Life that “there has never been any good solid clinical proof that it does work.”
In addition, Dr. Dean Winslow, a transmittable illness doctor at Stanford Healthcare, informs Yahoo Life that he was “really concerned” about the drug mix utilized in the study, which can cause heart rhythm changes.
” Both macrolide prescription antibiotics [like azithromycin] and antimalarial drugs [like hydroxychloroquine] have the potential of prolonging the QT period [the time between the heart muscle contracting and relaxing] in EKGs and can trigger fatal arrhythmias and increased mortality,” he discusses.
Adds Winslow: “This is more evidence that this is not a winning method. I believe we have actually stud