The French government has banned the prescription of hydroxychloroquine to treat symptoms of Covid-19 due to serious concerns over health risks. Many wonder if it’s the end of the road for the wonder drug, initially championed by France in March, reports Forbes.
The battle to use the drug in France has been waging for the past two months. In March, a French professor, Didier Raoult, based at the IHU, the Institute of Infectious Diseases in Marseille, published results suggesting he had been successfully treating patients with symptoms of Covid-19 with hydroxychloroquine.
Raoult has been using the anti-malarial drug (also used to treat lupus sufferers) combined with an antibacterial drug, azithromycin, because of its antiviral effects.
The findings were widely condemned across the medical profession because the drug causes heart irregularities, leading many to believe that doctors might prescribe it to patients without due care, leading to far worse health problems.
Critics claimed that the study simply showed anecdotal evidence–for example, the study only contained a small sample size and it lacked a control group, so many of the patients may have simply improved without taking the drug.