The Swiss voice in the world since 1935
Top stories
Stay in touch with Switzerland

Study finds hydroxychloroquine linked to higher death rate in Covid-19 patients

medicine bottle
The study evaluated 96,000 Covid-19 patients in 671 hospitals worldwide. Copyright 2020 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.

A study by the University Hospital of Zurich and Harvard Medical School finds the controversial antimalarial drugs, hydroxychloroquine and a similar drug chloroquine, show no benefit against Covid-19.

According to the studyExternal link published on Friday in the Lancet, hospitalised patients taking a regimen of the antimalarial drugs had a higher mortality rate. Patients treated with one of the drugs had a mortality rate of 11.1%, compared with 9.3% for a control sample.

The study, which was led by researchers at Harvard Medical School and the University Hospital of Zurich, evaluated 96,000 Covid-19 patients in 671 hospitals worldwide. About 15,000 of them were treated with one of the antimalarial drugs with or without antibiotics (macrolides such as azithromycin and clarithromycin) at the onset of the disease.
More

The researchers also observed a four-fold increased risk of cardiac arrhythmia. Some 4-8% of patients treated with one of the antimalarial drugs experienced a new heart arrhythmia, compared to 0.3% for those who were not taking such treatment.

There is “no scientific evidence” of the effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine, said Frank Ruschitzka, head of the Department of Cardiology at the University Hospital of Zurich in a statementExternal link.

“Hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine should therefore no longer be used for Covid-19 before we have the results of further, currently ongoing randomised clinical studies.”

The antimalarial drugs have been surrounded by controversy after enthusiastic remarks by US President Donald Trump earlier this year that left some epidemiologists uneasy given the well-known risks of the drugs particularly for people with heart conditions.

Last week, President Trump indicated that he has been taking hydroxychloroquine as a preventative measure. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted the drug emergency use authorization earlier this year but European authorities have been less enthusiastic about the drug.

Some of the excitement and hope stemmed from some pre-clinical studies as well as anecdotal evidence that it improved patents’ recovery.

In Switzerland, 17 hospitals are currently participating in a World Health Organization (WHO) solidarity study to test the effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine.

More
External Content
Your subscription could not be saved. Please try again.
Almost finished… We need to confirm your email address. To complete the subscription process, please click the link in the email we just sent you.
Weekly top stories

Keep up to date with the best stories from SWI swissinfo.ch on a range of topics, straight into your mailbox.

Weekly

The SBC Privacy Policy provides additional information on how your data is processed.


Popular Stories

Most Discussed

News

Porrentruy swimming pool: the town's mayor was not expecting such controversy

More

Porrentruy mayor comments on Swiss pool ban controversy

This content was published on The mayor of the Swiss town of Porrentruy, which has been in the headlines in neighbouring France after restricting access to a pool to locals after a spate of anti-social behaviour, says he has received much support in recent days.

Read more: Porrentruy mayor comments on Swiss pool ban controversy
Trained on the “Alps” supercomputer at the Swiss National Supercomputing Centre (CSCS) in Lugano, the new LLM marks a milestone in open-source AI and multilingual excellence, according to its developers.

More

Swiss universities to release multilingual AI programme

This content was published on This summer researchers at Swiss universities will make available a large language model (LLM), an AI programme trained on vast amounts of data, developed on public infrastructure.

Read more: Swiss universities to release multilingual AI programme
Zurich cantonal police introduce fixed online police stations

More

Zurich introduces online police station

This content was published on After a one-year test phase, Zurich's cantonal police are introducing an online police station. Demand is high and the response from the public has been positive.

Read more: Zurich introduces online police station
St. Moritz registers the summer as a brand

More

St Moritz registers ‘summer’ as trademark

This content was published on The chic resort of St Moritz in southeastern Switzerland has registered "summer" as a trademark under the name "St Summer". The resort in canton Graubünden is launching a campaign to strengthen its summer business.

Read more: St Moritz registers ‘summer’ as trademark
House prices rose sharply in June

More

Swiss house prices rose sharply in June

This content was published on The prices of homes and apartments in Switzerland rose again in June. In the Lake Geneva region, prices of detached houses rose sharply. Meanwhile, in Zurich and its surrounding region the opposite trend was observed.

Read more: Swiss house prices rose sharply in June
Heavy crowds expected at Swiss airports

More

Crowded airports expected in Switzerland this summer

This content was published on Switzerland's main airports are preparing for a busy summer holiday period. A number of changes have been introduced to improve passenger flows that are expected to be well above average in July and August.

Read more: Crowded airports expected in Switzerland this summer

In compliance with the JTI standards

More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative

You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!

If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.

SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR

SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR