COVID patients who were treated with hydroxychloroquine were less likely to die than those who weren’t, according to a new study.
Just 0.8 percent of patients at a facility in France who received hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) and an antibiotic died, compared with 4.8 percent of patients who didn’t receive the drug combination, French researchers reported on Nov. 1.
“This study represents the largest single-center study evaluating HCQ-AZ in the treatment of COVID-19,” Dr. Didier Raoult, with Aix-Marseille Universite in Marseille, and his co-authors wrote. “Similarly, to other large observational studies, it concludes that HCQ would have saved lives.”
Researchers examined records from 30,423 patients with COVID-19 who were treated at another institution in Marseille, IHU Méditerranée Infection. They included all adults who tested positive for COVID-19 and were treated in the hospital as an inpatient or an outpatient between March 2, 2020, and Dec. 31, 2021.
The study set ended up with 30,202 patients because treatment information wasn’t available for the 221 others.
Most of the patients received off-label prescriptions of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin (AZ), a common antibiotic. Of the set, 23,172 patients received the drug combination. The other 7,030 did not.
Among those who received the drugs, 191, or 0.8 percent, died. Among those who did not, 344, or 4.8 percent, died.
Those who received HCQ and AZ were more likely to survive regardless of whether they were inpatients or outpatients.
The biggest effect was recorded in outpatients aged 50 to 89.
Limitations of the study included drawing from records from a single center. Funding came in part from the French government.
HCQ has been cleared in both France and the United States for decades, but not for treating COVID-19.
Dr. David Boulware, an infectious disease doctor at the University of Minnesota Medical School, said that clinical trial data don’t support using HCQ against the illness.
“Hydroxychloroquine has not been shown to have any benefit in randomized clinical trials,” Dr. Boulware, who wasn’t involved in the new study, told The Epoch Times in an email.
Mixed Evidence
Dr. Raoult and his co-authors acknowledged that several large randomized trials have found no benefits for HCQ against COVID-19, including a World Health Organization trial. But they said that the largest, which was funded by the World Health Organization and the UK government, suffered from “significant methodological problems,” including high dosing during the first 24 hours.They said the number of patients in the observational studies outweighs the number of patients in the randomized clinical trials (RCT) and supports using HCQ as an early treatment.
Dr. Raoult and his co-authors acknowledged the limitations of observational data but lamented what they see as a dearth of clinical trials that use proper dosing.
“Unfortunately, few if any of the RCTs that have attempted to demonstrate the efficacy of HCQ on COVID-19 patients were run with an appropriate methodology,” they wrote.
“In any case, since the epidemic has now vanished, it is no longer possible to conduct RCTs,” they concluded. “Only observational studies can bring any more insights to support policymakers with repositioning of hydroxychloroquine in the treatment of COVID-19.”
Dr. Raoult didn’t respond to a request for comment.
“Our study suggests that, despite the controversy surrounding its use, treatment with hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin remains a viable option,” Dr. Gert Meeus, a nephrologist with AZ Groeninge Hospital, and other researchers wrote.
That group noted concerns with trials similar to the concerns of the French group, including regarding the dosing levels.
