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Trump says he decides which days to take hydroxychloroquine 1:51
(CNN) - Severely ill covid-19 patients who were treated with hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine were more likely to die or develop dangerous cardiac arrhythmias, according to a large observational study published Friday in The Lancet medical journal.
The researchers analyzed data from more than 96,000 patients with a confirmed diagnosis of covid-19 in 671 hospitals. All were hospitalized from late December through mid-April, and had died or been discharged until April 21. Just under 15,000 patients were treated with the antimalarial drugs hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine, or one of those drugs combined with an antibiotic.
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All four treatments were linked to an increased risk of dying in hospital. About 1 in 11 patients in the control group died in hospital. About 1 in 6 patients treated with chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine alone died in the hospital. Approximately 1 in 5 patients treated with chloroquine and an antibiotic died and almost 1 in 4 treated with hydroxychloroquine and an antibiotic died.
The researchers also found that severe cardiac arrhythmias were more common among patients receiving any of the four treatments. The greatest increase occurred between the group treated with hydroxychloroquine and an antibiotic; 8% of those patients developed cardiac arrhythmia, compared to 0.3% of patients in the control group.
"Previous small-scale studies have been unable to identify strong evidence of a benefit and larger randomized controlled trials have yet to be completed," said study co-author Dr. Frank Ruschitzka, director of the Heart Center at University Hospital of Zurich, in a statement. "However, we now know from our study that the likelihood of these drugs improving COVID-19 results is quite low."
covid-19 hydroxychloroquine