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

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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.”

READ ALSO: WHO considers Madagascar’s COVID-19 cure for clinical observation process

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.”

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