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A large study of more than 1,400 COVID-19 patients has revealed the controversial coronavirus treatment hydroxychloroquine yielded no benefits for the people involved in the research.
The research, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association on Monday, looked at 1,438 patients from 25 hospitals in New York state between March 15 and March 28. Of those, 735 patients received hydroxychloroquine with azithromycin, 271 were given hydroxychloroquine alone, 211 received just azithromycin and 221 acted as a control group.
“[T]he fast moving public health implications of the COVID-19 pandemic necessitates that we examine potential treatments for the disease in the most rapid yet careful manner possible,” the Dean of the School of Public Health at University at Albany, David Holtgrave, said in a statement obtained by Fox News. “This observational study has given us an important early look at some key questions related to prescribing patterns of hydroxychloroquine, azithromycin and chloroquine. Unfortunately, we did not observe benefits of the most used drug (hydroxychloroquine with or without azithromycin) in this group of seriously ill, hospitalized patients.”
(AP Photo/John Locher)
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The researchers also made several other observations during the study, including that chloroquine “was so limited in use (less than 2 [percent] of the first several hundred records screened) that it was dropped from further analysis.”
Hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine are antimalarial drugs. No drug should be taken without a doctor’s prescription.
They also found that the combination of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin was “associated with significantly elevated levels of cardiac arrest even after statistical adjustment for sex, age, underlying health conditions, and more severe illness upon admission.”
A study in Brazil testing chloroquine in COVID-19 patients had to be stopped in April after patients who took high doses of the drug developed dangerous heart rhythm problems.
In late April, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned against the use of the two antimalarial drugs following reports of “serious heart rhythm problems” in COVID-19 patients treated with the medications.
“The FDA is aware of reports of serious heart rhythm problems in patients with COVID-19 treated with hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine, often in combination with azithromycin,” the agency said on its website.
“We are also aware of increased use of these medicines through outpatient prescriptions. Therefore, we would like to remind health care professionals and patients of the known risks associated with both hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine,” it added.
In the past, President Trump has touted hydroxychloroquine as a “game-changer.”
Separately in April, a study of 150 COVID-19 patients in China who received the drug showed it did not clear the patients of the virus, but it did alleviate some symptoms.
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In March, the FDA approved emergency use authorization to try several drugs, including hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine, in an effort to combat COVID-19, despite a lack of clear evidence of their effectiveness.
In April, a study of hydroxychloroquine use in treating COVID-19 at U.S. veterans hospitals showed no benefit and more deaths, researchers said.
New York, the hardest-hit state in the U.S., is still running trials on the effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine.
In March, Fox News reported the state had acquired 70,000 doses of hydroxychloroquine, 10,000 doses of zithromax and 750,000 doses of chloroquine.
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As of Tuesday morning, more than 4.1 million coronavirus cases have been diagnosed worldwide, more than 1.33 million of which are in the U.S., the most impacted country on the planet.
Fox News’ Madeline Farber and James Rogers contributed to this story.
