CQ, hydroxychloroquine can't be used to fight COVID-19, they actually increase chances of death: New study

An exhaustive scientific study on Friday (May 22) not only ruled out any benefits of the antimalarial drugs chloroquine (CQ) and hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) for COVID-19 patients but showed that the use of these two medicines actually led to higher death rate and heart complications for such patients.

The findings - published in the Lancet - go contrary to the Indian Council of Medical Research's advice to the doctors of using these two medicines to manage serious COVID-19 cases.

Notwithstanding a petition in the Supreme Court by a patient welfare outfit, the Indian government has supported the use of the two medicines that were also exported to many countries including the USA.

The observational study finds use of chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine - either alone or in combination with other medicines like Azithromycin - is linked to increased rates of mortality and heart arrhythmias among hospital patients with coronavirus.

The researchers analysed data from 96,032 patients hospitalised between 20 December 30, 2019 and April 14, 2020 with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 infection from 671 hospitals.

All of the patients had either been discharged or died by April 21, 2020.

The team compared outcomes from patients treated with chloroquine alone (1,868), hydroxychloroquine alone (3,016), chloroquine in combination with another drug (3,783) or hydroxychloroquine with another drug (6,221).

Patients from these four groups were compared with the remaining control group of 81,144 patients.

"This is the first large scale study to find statistically robust evidence that treatment with CQ or HCQ does not benefit patients with COVID-19. Instead, our findings suggest it may be associated with an increased risk of serious heart problems and increased risk of death," Mandeep R Mehra, lead author of the study and executive director of the Brigham and Women’s Hospital Center for Advanced Heart Disease in Boston, USA, said in a statement.

While the death rate was 9.3% in the control group, it ranged from 16% to 24% in each of the four groups involving the two drugs.

After adjustment for the other clinical factors, the death rate attributable to the use of these two drug regimens increased by 12.4-13.4%

"Several countries have advocated the use of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, either alone or in combination, as potential treatments for COVID-19. Justification for repurposing these medicines is based on a small number of anecdotal experiences that suggest they may have beneficial effects for people infected with the coronavirus. However, we now know from our study that the chance that these medications improve outcomes in COVID-19 cases is quite low," said co-author of the study Frank Ruschitzka, director of the Heart Center at University Hospital Zurich.

Such drug regimens, according to the researchers, should not be used to treat COVID-19 outside of clinical trials and urgent confirmation from randomised clinical trials is needed.