The anti-malaria drug promoted by United States President Donald Trump failed to prevent people from contracting the COVID-19 disease. Researchers claim the drug was no better than a placebo.

Scientists from the University of Minnesota and Canada conducted a study involving 821 people who had been exposed to the virus. The research was the first to test whether hydroxychloroquine could prevent people who had been exposed to the virus from developing symptoms.

Safety and Effectivity

Researchers from the clinical trial picked patients at random to receive the hydroxychloroquine pill or a placebo. The participants were health care workers and other individuals who had been exposed at home to family and relatives who are ill. The method has been used in many trials and is the most reliable way to test the drug's safety and effectivity.

In initial studies conducted in France and China, the drug, when combined with antibiotics, could help combat the virus and speed up a patient's recovery. The work has garnered global attention and was prescribed to patients.

Trump had also touted the drug in multiple press conferences. On May 20, the president revealed he had been undergoing a hydroxychloroquine treatment to protect him from contracting the virus.

However, data from the latest study show 12 percent or nearly a hundred people who received the anti-malaria treatment developed coronavirus-related symptoms including fever or breathing difficulties. On the other hand, 14 percent or 115 participants who received a placebo tested positive for the disease.

Serious safety problems often associated with the drug, such as irregular heart rhythms or fatalities, did not develop among the participants.

Limitations

An editorial accompanying the results of the study listed the limitations the researchers faced during the process. The team faced a shortage of test kits, making it impossible to know for sure how many participants were infected with the virus. Only 75 percent or 620 participants finished the full course of the hydroxychloroquine treatment. Several quit due to the side effects of the drug.

The scientists, who waited four days after exposure before administering the drug, claims the stalling may not have given the drug a chance to work The researchers are now studying whether taking it earlier may present a different result.

The study did not address whether hydroxychloroquine could prevent people from contracting the illness. Other clinical trials have signed up health care workers and medical technicians to study the possibility.

Emergency Approval

Hydroxychloroquine was designed to treat malaria more than a decade ago. Today, the drug is used to treat lupus and rheumatoid arthritis.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration gave its approval for doctors to use the drug as a treatment to COVID-19 patients on an emergency basis in March.

Democratic politicians scrutinized the agency for its decision to grant hydroxychloroquine an emergency use authorization. Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon called out the agency for "bowing to the pressure."

"Doing so threw open the door to tens of millions of pills, including some, directly related to this hearing, manufactured inside facilities in Pakistan and India that have either failed F.D.A.'s inspection or never been inspected by the F.D.A. at all."

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