WHO Resumes Hydroxychloroquine Study for COVID-19

statnews.com

The World Health Organization is resuming a clinical trial exploring whether the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine can effectively treat COVID-19, after pausing enrollment in the study to review safety concerns about the drug.

The hydroxychloroquine investigation is just one arm of the agency’s Solidarity Trial, which is testing different therapies to determine which are beneficial in the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.

The WHO last week temporarily suspended the hydroxychloroquine arm after a separate study published in the Lancet raised warnings about the drug’s safety.

Like the Lancet study, other observational studies had not found any apparent benefit for the drug in COVID-19.

But the Lancet study prompted additional concerns because it found the drug was also associated with higher mortality.

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