A small study conducted in China shows that hydroxychloroquine, a drug used to treat malaria, could also be help COVID-19 patients recover faster.
The study, which has not been peer-reviewed, was conducted from Feb. 4 to Feb. 28 and involved 62 COVID-19 patients admitted to a hospital in Wuhan, China. About 31 patients received hydroxychloroquine in addition to the usual care provided to COVID-19 patients, while the rest only received the usual treatments, which included oxygen, antiviral drugs and antibiotics, The New York Times reports.
Researchers found patients in the hydroxychloroquine group experienced reductions in fevers and coughs a day or so earlier than those in the usual care group, the Times reports.
Also, about 80 percent of the patients in the hydroxychloroquine group experienced improvement in pneumonia compared to 54 percent of the usual care group.
Four patients progressed to severe illnesses, and they were all from the usual care group.
But two patients did experience mild adverse reactions in the hydroxychloroquine group.
There has been a lot of excitement around the potential benefits of adding hydroxychloroquine to the treatment regimen of coronavirus patients, after previous reports of its potential efficacy from China and France, though those reports did not include control groups, as well as comments by President Donald Trump, according to the Times. But this has led to hoarding and shortages of the malaria drug.