France stops use of hydroxychloroquine as coronavirus treatment

After the World Health Organization(WHO) temporarily stopped the clinical trial of hydroxychloroquine for treatment of coronavirus, the French government banned the treatment on Wednesday.

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The French government layed down rules allowing the drug to be used only in clinical trials to test its efficacy against COVID-19.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus had earlier said that "hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine are accepted as generally safe for use in patients with autoimmune diseases or malaria" while announcing a "temporary pause" on the use of the drug.

However, some nations including Brazil said it would not change its recommendation to treat COVID-19 infection with regard to hydroxychloroquine despite the WHO's directive.

US President Donald Trump has touted hydroxychloroquine as a wonder drug to treat patients as he announced that he himself was using it, surpsing many in his own administration. Brazil is one of the hardest hit countries in Latin America with  24,512 deaths and 391,222 infection cases.

In the last 24 hours, Brazil recorded 1,039 deaths which was the fourth time when the daily death toll crossed 1,000 in the South American nation.

Like Trump, Brazil President Bolsanaro has also lauded the use of hydroxychloroquine even though the US FDA has cautioned against possible side effects of the virus.

The medical jounrnal Lancet had triggered a debate after it published a report which said patients who had taken the antimalarial drug had a significantly higher risk of death compared with those who did not.

For those given hydroxychloroquine, there was a 34 per cent increase in risk of mortality and a 137 per cent increased risk of a serious heart arrhythmias, the report said.