WHO Resumes Clinical Trials of 'Chloroquine' Taken by Trump

Defects Found in Chloroquine Side Effect Study
Trump's Physician: "Safe to Take Without Side Effects"

[Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Hyunwoo Lee] The World Health Organization (WHO) announced that it will resume clinical trials of the malaria treatment drug hydroxychloroquine (hereafter chloroquine), which U.S. President Donald Trump revealed he took for two weeks as a preventive measure against the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19).

According to foreign media including CNBC, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said during a virtual press briefing held at the WHO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, on the 3rd (local time), "Based on the available mortality data, members of the Data Safety Monitoring Board recommended that there is no reason to amend the trial protocol," and "They supported continuing trials in all sectors, including chloroquine."

Earlier, Director-General Tedros had announced on the 25th of last month that clinical trials of chloroquine would be temporarily suspended. This was explained as a temporary halt while the Data Safety Monitoring Board reviewed concerns about the safety of chloroquine during WHO's solidarity trials testing the efficacy and safety of COVID-19 treatments.

However, after the British medical journal The Lancet, which had published a study on the side effects of chloroquine, announced that defects were found in the paper, calls for resuming clinical trials emerged. The paper reported the results of investigating the efficacy of the malaria treatment drug hydroxychloroquine on over 96,000 hospitalized COVID-19 patients from 671 hospitals worldwide, stating that patients who took the drug experienced fatal arrhythmias, increasing the risk of death by 34%. However, discrepancies were found between patient data from each hospital and the data in the paper, raising concerns about its reliability.

Meanwhile, on the same day, President Trump's personal physician also stated that President Trump had taken hydroxychloroquine for two weeks without side effects and completed the medication safely. However, it was also announced that there is still no evidence that this drug prevents or acts as a treatment for COVID-19.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.