BRASILIA, May 26, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – Brazil’s health ministry said Monday it
would not change its recommendation to treat coronavirus with
hydroxychloroquine, despite the World Health Organization deciding to suspend
trials of the drug over safety concerns.
Like his US counterpart Donald Trump, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro
has touted the supposed benefits of hydroxychloroquine and a related drug,
chloroquine, against the new coronavirus.
Studies, however, have questioned their safety and efficacy against the
disease, including one published Friday in respected medical journal The
Lancet that found the drugs actually increased the risk of death.
That led the WHO to suspend a worldwide clinical trial of
hydroxychloroquine as a COVID-19 treatment Monday.
“We’re remaining calm and there will be no change” to the Brazilian
guideline issued last week, health ministry official Mayra Pinheiro told a
news conference.
The guideline recommended doctors in the public health system prescribe
either chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine from the onset of COVID-19 symptoms.
It was issued shortly after the resignation of former health minister
Nelson Teich, who reportedly quit over Bolsonaro’s insistence on pushing the
drugs despite a lack of solid evidence.
He was Brazil’s second health minister in less than a month.
Brazil, the Latin American country hit hardest by the pandemic, has emerged
as the latest flashpoint, with nearly 375,000 cases — the second-highest in
the world, after the United States — and more than 23,000 deaths.
Experts say under-testing means the real figures are probably far higher.
Hydroxychloroquine is typically used to treat autoimmune diseases, while
chloroquine is generally used against malaria.
Preliminary studies in China and France had generated hope the drugs might
be effective against the new coronavirus.
That led governments to buy them in bulk. Trump even said last week he was
taking hydroxychloroquine as a preventive measure, though he said Sunday he
had finished his course of treatment.
Pinheiro questioned the Lancet study, which analyzed the medical records of
96,000 patients across hundreds of hospitals.
“It wasn’t a clinical trial, it was just a data set collected from
different countries, and that doesn’t meet the criteria of a methodologically
acceptable study to serve as a reference for any country in the world,
including Brazil,” she said.