French infectious disease specialist Didier Raoult is fighting for his controversial chloroquine treatment. The interested party joined the European Discovery trial, the French part of which is led by Inserm. There is talk of a clinical trial on several hundred people, the results of which will be available in more than a month.
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A few weeks ago, we were already talking about the potential of chloroquine, a controversial treatment since it has been decried until today by part of the scientific community. Didier Raoult, director of the Mediterranean Infection Institute in Marseille, explained that chloroquine showed signs of effectiveness against the coronavirus Covid-19. Remember that this is a treatment usually used against malaria.
Quoting a study conducted in China, the French expert praised the antiviral and anti-inflammatory abilities of chloroquine. Although the study in question had not quantified the effectiveness of the treatment, the Chinese researchers indicated that a treatment based on 500 mg of chloroquine per day for ten days would be enough.
A week ago, Didier Raoult delivered the results of his own clinical trial. This was a test on 24 patients who was prescribed Plaquenil, one of the trade names for chloroquine. According to the infectious disease specialist, only a quarter of patients still carried the virus after 6 days of treatment . As Les Échos explains in an article from March 21, 2020, chloroquine has just become a serious candidate in the fight against Covid-19. The French government has authorized a new large-scale randomized clinical trial, supervised by Inserm and part of the European Discovery trial.
The Discovery trial will involve 3,200 patients in Europe including 800 in France . Several university hospitals in the country are concerned in Paris, Lyon, Nantes and Lille, but the trial should then be extended to several dozen establishments. Each time, the patients will be divided into five groups, the first of which will only concern the symptoms (placebo). The other groups will test several remedies such as Kaletra (anti-HIV drug), interferon beta (modulation of the immune response) and Remdesivir (anti-Ebola). The last group will therefore concern chloroquine.
Finally, you will have to be patient because the first results should be delivered in six weeks minimum. The urgency is there since the administration of Plaquenil (one of the trade names of chloroquine) without control is already occurring. Indeed, some clinics treat the most serious patients with this drug, but it can have adverse effects in seniors.
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