The World Health Organization (WHO) has suspended testing of the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine in coronavirus patients due to safety concerns, according to WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
Key points:
- A study in The Lancet warned that hydroxycholoroquine could cause heart problems
- Donald Trump said he was taking the drug as a precaution against COVID-19
- Other WHO trials will continue, including for the experimental drug remdesivir
Hydroxychloroquine has been touted by US President Donald Trump and others as an effective treatment for COVID-19.
Mr Trump said last week that he was taking the drug to help prevent infection, although he later announced that he had stopped taking it.
In an online media briefing on Monday, Dr Tedros said the "temporary pause" on the hydroxychloroquine arm of the WHO's global clinical trial had been ordered after a paper was published in a leading medical journal.
The paper, in The Lancet, concluded that people taking hydroxychloroquine were at higher risk of heart problems and death.
"The executive group has implemented a temporary pause of the hydroxychloroquine arm within the Solidarity trial while the safety data is reviewed by the data safety monitoring board," Dr Tedros said.
He said the other arms of the trial — a major international initiative to hold clinical tests of potential treatments for the virus — would continue.
The WHO had previously recommended against using hydroxychloroquine to treat or prevent coronavirus infections, except as part of clinical trials.
Other treatments in the trial, including the experimental drug remdesivir and an HIV combination therapy, are still being tested.
Having sung the praises of hydroxychloroquine during his coronavirus briefings in March and April, Mr Trump stunned reporters on May 18 when he announced that he was taking it, even though he had not tested positive for COVID-19.
His own administration had warned that the drug could have deadly side effects when used for anything other than treatment for malaria.
Both the US Food and Drug Administration and the European Medicines Agency warned health professionals last month that the drug should not be used to treat COVID-19 outside hospital or research settings.
Putting themselves further at odds with Mr Trump, WHO officials also renewed their praise for China's response to the pandemic.
Dr Michael Ryan, the executive director of the WHO's emergencies program, said the WHO was in "day-to-day" discussions with China about scientific inquiries into the animal origin of the disease.
Mr Trump has repeatedly criticised the WHO leadership, once calling it a "pipe organ" for China in the handling of the outbreak.
He has also pointed to unspecified intelligence reports suggesting the virus originated in a lab in the Chinese city of Wuhan, a claim which has been repeatedly denied by medical officials.
ABC/wires
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2020-05-25 23:25:12Z
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