Over 300 international researchers from the Observational Health Data Sciences and Informatics (OHDSI) community studied data from almost 1 million patients. They declared hydroxychloroquine safe for short-term use, but urge caution in using it in combination with azithromycin.
In the face of the rapid spread and escalation of the coronavirus, many decisions are being made quickly and a number of therapies are being trialled for its treatment. One of these is the use of hydroxychloroquine, a drug approved in 1950’s for the treatment of malaria, lupus and rheumatoid arthritis.
In the last few days in the USA the FDA has approved the use of hydroxychloroquine for compassionate use in the treatment of COVID-19. Despite the lack of evidence of its clinical effectiveness, President Donald Trump says the drug has shown ‘very encouraging results’ in treating coronavirus.
Led by Prof Dani Prieto-Alhambra, Professor of Pharmaco- and Device Epidemiology at the Centre for Statistics in Medicine (NDORMS), a team of researchers from around the world set out to analyse the safety profile of hydroxychloroquine.