GENEVA: The use of Malaria drug ‘Hydroxychloroquinine’ and HIV drugs in the treatment of Covid-19 patients has stopped by the apex Organisation WHO as these therapeutics failed to deliver the possible outcome.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said that it has discontinued its trials of the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine and combination HIV drug lopinavir/ritonavir in hospitalised patients with COVID-19 after they failed to reduce mortality.
“These interim trial results show that hydroxychloroquine and lopinavir/ritonavir produce little or no reduction in the mortality of hospitalised Covid-19 patients when compared to standard of care. Solidarity trial investigators will interrupt the trials with immediate effect,” the WHO said in a statement, referring to large multicountry trials that the agency is leading.
The U.N. agency said the decision, taken on the recommendation of the trial’s international steering committee, does not affect other studies where those drugs are used for non-hospitalised patients or as a prophylaxis.
In other developments, the World Health Organization (WHO) on Monday said the WHO is deeply concerned about the impact of COVID-19 on the global response to HIV.
“A new WHO survey showed access to HIV medicines has been significantly curtailed as a result of the pandemic,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.
Globally, the coronavirus outbreak across the world has now infected more than 1.16 crore people, with 5.35 lakh people succumbing to the virus.