COVID-19: Under-fire WHO suspends trial for hydroxychloroquine

The World Health Organisation (WHO) said Monday it had temporarily suspended clinical trials of hydroxychloroquine as a potential treatment for COVID-19 as a precautionary measure.

The WHO Director-General, Tedros Ghebreyesus, who disclosed this at a virtual press briefing in Geneva, Switzerland, said the decision came after the publication last week of a study in the Lancet indicating that using the drug on COVID-19 patients could increase their likelihood of dying.

He added that the WHO-backed trials had been suspended while the safety was reviewed.

The WHO chief said: “The executive group has implemented a temporary pause of the hydroxychloroquine arm within the solidarity trial while the safety data is reviewed by the data safety monitoring board.”

United States President, Donald Trump, was among the first set of people to wax lyrical about the possible benefits of hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19 patients last month.

Trump declared that he took the drug for two weeks as a prophylactic.

He said: “This would be a gift from heaven. This would be a gift from God if it works. We are going to pray to God that it does work.”