Hydroxychloroquine has no meaningful effect on coronavirus - WHO

The World Health Organisation Guideline Development Group panel of international experts warns strongly against the use of hydroxychloroquine to prevent COVID-19.

Their strong recommendation against the anti-inflammatory drug is based on high certainty evidence from six randomised controlled trials involving over 6,000 participants with and without known exposure to a person with COVID-19 infection, published in the journal, The British Medical Association.

The experts noted that high certainty evidence showed that hydroxychloroquine had no meaningful effect on death and admission to hospital, while moderate certainty evidence showed that hydroxychloroquine had no meaningful effect on laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 infection and it probably increases the risk of adverse effects.

“As such, the panel considers that this drug is no longer a research priority and that resources should be used to evaluate other more promising drugs to prevent COVID-19.

“This guideline applies to all individuals who do not have COVID-19, regardless of their exposure to a person with COVID-19 infection.

“The panel judged that almost all people would not consider this drug worthwhile, and also decided that factors such as resources, feasibility, acceptability, and equity for countries and healthcare systems were unlikely to alter the recommendation,” they said.

The experts noted that the recommendation is the first version of a living guideline for drugs to prevent COVID-19, developed by WHO with the methodological support of MAGIC Evidence Ecosystem Foundation.

“Its aim is to provide trustworthy guidance on the management of covid-19 and help doctors make better decisions with their patients.

“Living guidelines are useful in fast-moving research areas like covid-19 because they allow researchers to update previously vetted and peer-reviewed evidence summaries.

“New recommendations for other preventive drugs for COVID-19 will be added to this guideline as more evidence becomes available,” the experts said.