New study links hydroxychloroquine to increased risk of COVID-19 death

Hydroxychloroquine, the antimalarial drug promoted by U.S. President Donald Trump as a "game changer" to treat COVID-19 patients, has been linked to an increased risk of death and serious heart problems, a study published on Friday in the medical journal The Lancet showed. 

The international study analyzed data from more than 96,000 hospitalized coronavirus patients from 671 hospitals across six continents during the period between late December and mid-April. It is the largest observational analysis to date on the drug following disappointing results of earlier small studies.  

Seriously ill COVID-19 patients who were treated with hydroxychloroquine or the closely-related drug chloroquine were more likely to die or develop dangerous arrhythmia, namely irregular heart rhythms that can lead to sudden cardiac death, it concluded.  

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