Hydroxychloroquine: Over 100 people died in US while taking medicine for Covid-19: report

NEW YORK: Over 100 people in the US died in the first half of 2020 after taking the anti-malarial medicine hydroxychloroquine or related drugs while sick with COVID-19, according to a report.

Analysis of new data from the US Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) adverse events reporting system by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel revealed the deaths of 293 people in the first half of this year involved hydroxychloroquine, its brand name Plaquenil, or its sister medicine chloroquine. That was up from 75 in the first half of 2019. Of those, COVID-19 was stated as the reason for the patient using the medication in "more than half" of cases, according to the newspaper.

Hydroxychloroquine has long been prescribed to prevent or treat malaria, as well as for auto-immune diseases such as lupus and rheumatoid arthritis, but has more recently been falsely promoted as a treatment for COVID-19.