The flagship medical publication, The Lancet, has unveiled a very large study regarding the utility of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine against the coronavirus.
In summary, the analysis, which studied nearly 100,000 COVID-19 patients, explains that chloroquine and its derivative do not have a positive effect against the virus; on the contrary, they increase the possibility of death and cardiac arrhythmia.
As a result, on Saturday, May 23, the Minister of Health, Olivier Vรฉran, announced that he had referred the matter to the High Council of Public Health to review the emergency prescription rules for the medication.
In the study published by The Lancet, researchers recommended limiting the prescription of the controversial treatments exclusively to clinical trials and no longer to severe cases in general. For the moment, outside of these trials, France has restricted the use of hydroxychloroquine to hospitals only and solely for severe cases upon a collegial decision by doctors.
Since the beginning of the coronavirus epidemic, the molecule has gained sudden popularity due to promotion by Professor Didier Raoult. However, before The Lancet’s study, a Chinese study and another French study showed that the treatment had no significant effect in the fight against COVID-19.
