Hydroxychloroquine shouldn't be used at all to treat Covid-19: IDSA

Hospitals should drop using the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine altogether to treat Covid-19 patients, even if it’s in a clinical trial, according to new medical guidelines.

The Infectious Diseases Society of America revised its Covid-19 treatment guidelines Friday, toughening its stance against the use of the anti-malarial drug that’s been widely touted by President Donald Trump as a way to deal with the pandemic.

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IDSA now recommends not to use hydroxychloroquine either by itself or along with the antibiotic azithromycin for patients with the coronavirus, even in hospitals. The society previously called for limited use of hydroxychloroquine in trials.

“IDSA’s expert guidelines panel concluded that higher certainty benefits (e.g., mortality reduction) for the use of these treatments are now highly unlikely even if additional high-quality data would become available,” the group said in a statement.

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Earlier, a National Institutes of Health panel recommended against using hydroxychloroquine with azithromycin, unless in a clinical trial, because of an increased risk of cardiac arrest. The agency halted its own clinical trial of hydroxychloroquine in June.