Drug to be used under strict care despite WHO’s safety concerns
A day after the WHO suspended clinical trial of Hydroxycholoroquine (HCQ) on Covid-19 patients citing safety concerns, India on Tuesday said it will continue using the drug as preventive care for its healthcare and frontline workers under strict medical supervision.
Dr Balram Bhargava, the Director General of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), said the drug was recommended initially in March based on in-vitro studies which showed it had antiviral properties. “There have been observational studies and case control studies that have not shown many side-effects due to the use of HCQ.
“We thought it might be useful drug for prevention of Covid-19 and taking the biological plausibility, the in-vitro data, and taking the availability and safety of this drug, we recommended it as empiric use under strict medical supervision,” Bhargava said at a presser here.
“During the weeks since it was recommended, we got some data (on HCQ) which showed there is no harm, but benefit may be there,” he said.
“They were mainly observational studies in different cohorts done at AIIMS and case control study at ICMR and studies were also done at three Delhi public hospitals. We found that it may be working and there were no major side effects, except nausea, vomiting and some palpitations occasionally. We have clearly said it should be continued for prophylaxis,” he said.
The ICMR DG said the Government’s latest advisory regarding expanding the use of HCQ to frontline workers such as paramilitary and police personnel is based on “risk-benefit analysis”.
“We should not deny this to our healthcare workers and frontline workers who are dealing with virus-hit patients. At the same time, we have also said they should follow medical recommendations like not eating it on empty stomach and that PPE use must be continued. Our study on HCQ will be published soon,” Bhargava said.
The ICMR had first recommended use of the anti-malarial drug in March and expanded its use last week.
A large observational study published in The Lancet on patients in six continents concluded the drug could also have a harmful affect by way of increasing risk of irregular heartbeat.
WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreysus said on Monday the UN body’s executive group had implemented a temporary pause of the HCQ arm within the “solidarity” trial while the data is being reviewed by the data-safety monitoring.
