Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) is no better than usual care in reducing the chances of death in COVID-19 patients, suggest the results of RECOVERY Trials published on 8th October in the New England Journal of Medicine.
RECOVERY (Randomised Evaluation of COVID-19 therapy) is a set of clinical trials started in the UK to find an effective treatment for those hospitalised with COVID-19 (suspected or confirmed). The trials team included more than 3,500 medical professionals across the UK.
HCQ was the first-ever drug the team had started to study in May 2020. However, by June 5, the HCQ arm of the trials stopped taking more patients since the interim results indicated the inefficiency of the drug.
For the trial, the researchers in the UK randomly assigned 1,561 COVID-19 patients to get HCQ while 3,155 were given a placebo. The aim of the study was to check mortality in patients after 28 days.
Results of the study:
In 28 days, 27 percent of patients in the HCQ group died as compared to 25 percent in the usual care group.
Only 59.6 percent of patients in the HCQ group were discharged within 28 days while 62.9 percent in the usual care group were discharged in the same time interval.
Patients who did not need mechanical ventilation to begin with had a higher likelihood of needing ventilation or dying when they were put on HCQ.
There was a slightly higher number of patients who died of cardiac issues in the HCQ group but no cases of new cardiac arrhythmia in those patients.
To read the study please click here.
