Coronavirus drug endorsed by Trump causes no heart complications despite previous concerns, study finds - Yahoo Lifestyle

Hydroxychloroquine is not approved for the prevention or treatment of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, in the UK or US.

The World Health Organization (WHO) stopped testing the drug after a Harvard study found patients on hydroxychloroquine were more likely to develop de-novo ventricular arrhythmia, the sudden onset of abnormal beating in the lower chambers of the heart.

A team of European scientists has since found, however, hydroxychloroquine was not associated with deadly heart rhythms among patients with a low risk for arrhythmias.

The scientists stressed they only looked into hydroxychloroquine’s safety.

The Harvard scientists found that out of more than 96,000 coronavirus patients, those given hydroxychloroquine were a third (33%) more likely to die than those receiving other forms of care.

With safety and efficacy questions still lingering, a team of European scientists looked at 649 coronavirus patients between 10 March and 10 April.

The patients were first assessed for their QT prolongation risk, a sign of arrhythmias.

Although the drug has been used for decades for other conditions, the coronavirus pandemic is the first time it has been taken by large numbers of acutely ill patients with multiple health conditions, who may also be on other drugs that cause QT prolongation as a side effect.

The scale of the coronavirus outbreak raises the risk any one patient may have a pre-existing heart condition that predisposes them to arrhythmias.

Once the participants’ QT prolongation risk was found to be low, they were given 200mg of hydroxychloroquine twice a day.

To mirror real-world conditions, around a third (30%) of the patients were on two drugs that can cause QT prolongation – one being hydroxychloroquine, and 13.6% were taking three of the medications.

The results – published in the journal EP Europace – revealed a statistically significant increase in QT prolongation across all three settings, however, this was modest and similar regardless of where the patient was treated.

“The study shows hydroxychloroquine administration, alone or in combination with other potentially QT-prolonging drugs, is safe for short-term treatment of COVID-19 patients at home or in hospital, provided they undergo risk assessment and ECG [electrocardiogram] monitoring by a physician.”.

When it comes to the drug’s efficacy, Dr Anthony Fauci – director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases – told the BBC in July “every single good study has shown hydroxychloroquine is not effective in the treatment of COVID-19”.

The US Food and Drug Administration “cautions against use of hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19 outside of the hospital setting or a clinical trial due to risk of heart rhythm problems”.

“If it turns out hydroxychloroquine is effective for COVID-19, then let’s use it; if not, let’s abandon it.