Plan to use HCQ for Covid-19 treatment receives setback after death reports

Trump administration has stockpiled more than 30 million doses of hydroxychloroquine, a large chuunk of which has been imported from India

The plan to use much touted anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine for treating Covid-19 patients has received a setback with more deaths being reported among those who were given the drug, according to a report. While another report suggested that there was insufficient clinical data to either recommend or oppose the use of hydroxychloroquine for treating those infected with the deadly virus.

President Donald Trump, who has been aggressively promoting the use of hydroxychloroquine in the treatment of Covid-19 patients, said that he would look into the reports. His administration has stockpiled more than 30 million doses of hydroxychloroquine, a large chunk of which has been imported from India. “I don’t know of the report. Obviously, there have been some very good reports and perhaps this one’s not a good report. But we’ll be looking at it. We’ll have a comment on it at some point,” Trump told reporters during his daily White House news conference on coronavirus.

Trump was responding to a question on a study released by a group of scientists on use of hydroxychloroquine with or without antibiotic azithromycin for 368 Covid-19 patients. The unreviewed study submitted to New England Journal of Medicine for publication and posted online found no evidence that use of hydroxychloroquine, either with or without azithromycin, reduced the risk of mechanical ventilation in patients hospitalised with Covid-19…Read More