Covid-19: Hydroxychloroquine stopped being used after no positive effects, says Health DG

PUTRAJAYA: The Health Ministry has conducted trials using hydroxychloroquine on about 500 Covid-19 patients in the country, with no significant difference found on them.

Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said that the medicine which has been used to treat malaria for more than 40 years, was part of a trial as it relieved inflammation.

“When we reviewed the data of about 500 cases, it was revealed that there were no positive effects. The statistics didn’t show its effectiveness. When there is no effectiveness, we stopped using it,” he said during a press conference on the Covid-19 updates on Monday (June 22).

The World Health Organisation (WHO) had in May halted trials of the drug for Covid-19 treatment under the global Solidarity Trial that Malaysia is also part of.

The drug had been tested for its effectiveness in halting the worsening of symptoms, such as stopping category one patients from developing symptoms that would lead them to be classified as category four or five patients.

Category one is for positive cases with no symptoms, category two is for positive cases with mild symptoms, category three is for positive cases with pneumonia, category four patients are those who have inflammation in the lungs and require oxygen, while category five patients are those who came to the hospital in the late stages and require ventilator support.

The use of hydroxychloroquine became controversial following reports of deaths due to reported arrhythmia (irregular heart rate) and cardiac arrest among patients it was given to.

Dr Noor Hisham also said they were conducting trials using several HIV drugs, including the drug remdesivir on nine patients.

He, however, said that that they did not have enough patients to conduct scientific trials of the various drugs, although Malaysia was identified to be part of the solidarity trial.