A retrospective study of patients with COVID-19 at Veterans Affairs (VA) hospitals found no evidence that the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine, either with or without the antibiotic azithromycin, reduced mortality or the need for mechanical ventilation.Researchers also found that hydroxychloroquine alone was associated with increased mortality.The findings, published this week on the preprint server medRxiv, suggest hydroxychloroquine may not have as much promise for treating COVID-19 patients as initially hoped.
The study was not a randomized controlled trial, so the implications of the findings are limited, and the results have not been peer-reviewed.