The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have revoked the emergency use of the malaria drugs hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine for the treatment of coronavirus.
US President Donald Trump suggested the use of hydroxychloroquine in the treatment of coronavirus and claimed that he himself had used the drug.
However, the FDA said in a statement on its website on Monday (June 15) that it had decided to revoke the emergency use of the Covid-19 treatment in light of recent reviews of the two drugs. This is because the latest studies have not proven the efficacy of hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine in the treatment of corona.
Earlier in the last week of March, Trump claimed that the FDA had approved the drug for corona's treatment. But then the FDA rejected that claim. In the last week of April, the US Drug Administration warned of the dangers of these drugs. In March, however, the company approved the use of two drugs in case of emergency treatment of corona at the hospital.
However, this time the US government agency moved away from that decision. The FDA's chief scientist, Dennis Hinton, wrote in a letter to Gary Disbro of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority that the use of both drugs is more risky than good results. The use of hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine can cause serious heart problems as a side effect. So the permission to use this drug was canceled.
A research report published in the Lancet Medical Journal states that the use of hydroxychloroquine increases the risk of death. The World Health Organization (WHO) on May 25 ordered the cessation of the drug's use, citing the medical safety of Covid-19 patients. Later, on June 3, the organiztion withdrew from that decision and again approved the use of two drugs in clinical trials.
Tedros Adhanom Gebroyasus, then head of the World Health Organization, said the decision to stop using hydroxychloroquine was taken as a safety measure. How safe and effective the application of hydroxychloroquine has been observed in patients with coronavirus. The decision to temporarily stop the use of hydroxychloroquine was withdrawn finally, the WHO chief added.