Odd that a drug approved in America in 1955, and subsequently approved for the treatment of rheumatic disease during pregnancy, among other purposes, would suddenly develop safety concerns.
[Jpost] The World Health Organization has suspended testing the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine in COVID-19 patients due to safety concerns, WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Monday.Hydroxycholoroquine has been touted by Donald Trump
...the Nailer of NAFTA...
and others as a possible treatment for the disease caused by the novel coronavirus (aka COVID19 or Chinese Plague)
...the twenty first century equivalent of bubonic plague, only instead of killing off a third of the population of Europe it kills 3.4 percent of those who notice they have it. It seems to be fond of the elderly, especially Iranian politicians and holy men.... The US President has said he was taking the drug to help prevent infection.
"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," Tedros told an online briefing.
He said the other arms of the trial - a major international initiative to hold clinical tests of potential treatments for the virus - were continuing.
The WHO has previously recommended against using hydroxychloroquine to treat or prevent coronavirus infections, except as part of clinical trials.
Dr. Mike Ryan, head of the WHO emergencies program, said the decision to suspend trials of hydroxychloroquine had been taken out of "an abundance of caution."