Hydroxychloroquine proves to be ineffective for COVID-19 prevention, study claims

June 5, 2020  21:26

Hydroxychloroquine did not show effectiveness as postexposure prophylaxis for COVID-19, the New England Journal of Medicine reported referring to a new study.

The authors of the study, scientists from the University of Minnesota (US), based on an experiment involving 821 patients who had been in contact with COVID-19 patients for 10 minutes or longer. The risk of infection of most of them (719) was considered high since they did not use protective masks and gloves. All study participants were randomly prescribed the use of hydroxychloroquine or placebo.

Thus, 49 out of 414 people who received hydroxychloroquine became infected with the coronavirus. In the placebo group, COVID-19 was diagnosed in 58 out of 40 patients. The proportion of infected among those taking hydroxychloroquine was 11.83% versus 14.25% of the study participants receiving placebo. Side effects in the group with this drug and placebo were 40.1 and 18.6 percent, respectively, but there were no serious consequences in both groups.

Thus, scientists proved the uselessness of hydroxychloroquine in the prevention of the disease, since there was no statistically significant difference between the group receiving the medicine and the group receiving the placebo.

Follow NEWS.am Medicine on Facebook and Twitter


 
  • Video
 
 
  • Event calendar
 
 
  • Archive
 
  • Most read
 
  • Find us on Facebook
 
  • Poll
Are you aware that in 2027 medical insurance will become mandatory for all Armenian citizens?
I’m aware, and I'm in favor
I’m not aware, and I'm against
I'm aware, but I'm still undecided
I'm not aware, but in principle I'm in favor
I'm not aware, but in principle I'm against
It doesn't matter to me