Treatment with hydroxychloroquine is linked to a wave of excess mortality at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a study carried out in six countries.
- Hydroxychloroquine, prescribed for hospitalized patients with Covid-19, was responsible for nearly 17,000 deaths at the start of the pandemic, according to a recent study. Among them, 13,000 come from the United States and 200 from France.
- In recent years, other work has already shown an excess mortality of 11% among Covid patients treated with hydroxychloroquine.
- The authors of the study admit that these thousands of deaths are probably underestimated, since the figures for certain large countries where the drug has been massively used, such as India or Brazil, do not yet exist.
Hydroxychloroquine, prescribed for hospitalized patients with Covid-19 “despite low level evidence”would be responsible for nearly 17,000 deaths at the start of the pandemic, according to a recent study published in the journal Biomedicine & Pharmacotherapy and consulted by France Inter.
This little-known treatment, initially used for malaria and administered against the coronavirus without any validation from the authorities, became famous with its media coverage by Professor Didier Raoult, at the IHU in Marseille, during the first wave of the health crisis. in France in 2020.
Excess mortality in patients with Covid-19 treated with hydroxychloroquine
To arrive at this observation, scientists – from Lyon University Hospital, among others – observed excess mortality in patients with Covid and treated with hydroxychloroquine in six countries (France, United States, Belgium, Italy, Spain and Turkey ) for which data was available, in other words, the number of hospitalized patients, their mortality rate and the prescription rate of hydroxychloroquine, in order to calculate the number of patients who died from the virus and had been treated with the drug.
As a result, the number of deaths among hospitalized patients is estimated at 16,990 in these six countries, we can read in the study. Among them, 13,000 come from the United States and 200 from France. These last years, other works had already shown an excess mortality of 11% in Covid patients treated with hydroxychloroquine.
Hydroxychloroquine associated with heart rhythm disorders
“This confirms that patients suffering from Covid and who receive this drug are more likely to die than those who do not receive it”, assures epidemiologist Pierre Tatevin, head of the infectious diseases department at Rennes University Hospital, speaking to France Inter. The one who was one of the first to challenge its use recalls that the drug “can cause heart rhythm disturbances” if he is “poorly dosed, given in too high a dose or to fragile hearts”.
The authors of the study admit that these thousands of deaths could only be the tip of the iceberg, since the figures from certain large countries where the drug has been massively used, such as India or Brazil, don’t exist yet. Furthermore, the assessment only takes into account patients treated with hydroxychloroquine during the first wave, between March and June 2020, but the treatment continued to be given thereafter, with a very variable prescription rate from one country to another (from 2 to 92%).
