Washington: A study conducted by researchers at the University of Minnesota has claimed that the anti-malaria drug touted by US President Donald Trump as a Covid-19 treatment was ineffective for patients with a mild version of the disease.
About 24 per cent of the patients given hydroxychloroquine in the study had persisting symptoms over a 14-day period, while roughly 30 per cent of the group given a placebo were determined to have persistent symptoms over the same period.
According to the researchers, the difference was not statistically significant.
“Hydroxychloroquine did not substantially reduce symptom severity or prevalence over time in non-hospitalized persons with early Covid-19,” they wrote in an article to be published in the Annals of Internal Medicine journal.
The randomized, placebo-controlled study was conducted on 491 non-hospitalized patients. Owing to test shortages in the United States, only 58% of participants were tested for the disease.
Although it was not an endpoint of the study, five individuals who were given hydroxychloroquine were hospitalized or died because of Covid-19, compared with eight people given a placebo.
The study “provides strong evidence that hydroxychloroquine offers no benefit in patients with mild illness,” Dr Neil Schluger of New York Medical College said in an commentary on the study.