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A hospital in France stopped hydroxychloroquine treatment because of cardiac side effects
Professor Émile Ferrari, the head of the cardiology department at Nice University Hospital in Nice, France, told a local news outlet he has had to stop treating patients with hydroxychloroquine combined with azithromycin because of adverse cardiac effects.
Nice University Hospital was selected as part of a trial to test some coronavirus treatments, including hydroxychloroquine. Ferrari told Nice-Matin newspaper that one patient experienced a serious complication and that the treatment was stopped immediately.
The cardiologist reiterated what health experts have warned about the drug combination: that the drugs can trigger arrhythmia, which can lead to a fatal heart attack in some patients, especially those who have heart conditions or are on certain medications.
In the United States, doctors have recommended screening patients with an electrocardiogram to prevent the drugs from being given to the 1 percent of patients at greatest risk of a cardiac event, The Washington Post has reported. The drugs also can cause vision loss called retinopathy with long-term use, and chloroquine has been associated with psychosis.
So far, there is no clear evidence that the drugs work to treat the coronavirus, though their antiviral properties have been tested in labs. Rigorous clinical trials that test the drugs in humans against placebos have not been completed.
Ferrari told Nice-Martin that although covid-19 can kill, the treatment should not be more harmful than the disease.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2020/04/07/coronavirus-latest-news/#link-K4DJOFMFVVBEPGPHM2NFG3A4BI