hydroxychloroquine responsible for at least 16,990 deaths during the first wave, according to a study

Wrongly presented as a miracle molecule against Covid-19, hydroxychloroquine is, according to a French study, linked to nearly 17,000 deaths occurring in six countries.

The work of French researchers revealing the dangers of hydroxychloroquine has just been published in a very serious international pharmacology journal. In spring 2020, Hydroxychloroquine caused the death of 16,990 people, according to this study, in Belgium, Spain, France, Italy, Turkey and the United States.

In France alone, this molecule is linked to 200 deaths during the first wave of Covid-19. This drug, initially used against malaria, was presented by Professor Didier Raoult, former director of the IHU in Marseille, as an effective treatment against Covid-19. It was prescribed massively in many countries during the first wave.

Heart rhythm disorders

But subsequently, several research studies have highlighted its ineffectiveness in this indication. A study, published in Nature in 2021, reported an 11% increase in the mortality rate, linked to its prescription against Covid-19, because of potential side effects such as heart rhythm disturbances, but also due to loss of opportunity compared to the use of other treatments, which were effective.

To reach this figure of 16,990 deaths, researchers from the Hospices Civils de Lyon (13 public hospitals of excellence) had to cross, for each of the six countries studied, hospitalization data for Covid-19, exposure to hydroxychloroquine, and the increase in the relative risk of death linked to this drug, the famous 11% published in the journal Nature previously. We are therefore talking here about statistical data, on which there is a margin of error.

A number of victims probably much greater

But for the authors, the number of victims is probably much greater, because this study only concerns six countries over the period March-July 2020, while hydroxychloroquine was prescribed more widely. The authors of this work in any case highlight the dangers of hasty use of old medications. And this is also what was recalled, in a newspaper column The world last May, a collective of scientists: “Demonstration of the effects of drugs in humans meets ethical and scientific standards built over decades, ethey cried, Respecting them is essential to guarantee patient safety.”