Washington, May 16: Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), the drug hyped by US President Donald Trump as "game-changer" in fight against coronavirus, is proving to be ineffective. Another study found that the anti-malarial medicine is ineffective in treating COVID-19 patients. The latest research, conducted on victims in New York, comes in the backdrop of apprehensions raised over HCQ by the National Health Institute and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

A total of 1,438 coronavirus patients, spread over 25 hospitals of New York City, were observed by researchers of University at Albany. One group of the victims were administered with the HCQ tablets, another with a combination of HCQ and Azithromycin, and the third which was treated with neither. First Consignment of 5 Million Tablets of Hydroxychloroquine From India Reach Toronto.

The study, in the Journal of the American Medical Association on Monday, found that the mortality rate was nearly the same among patients who were treated with both the medicines, either one of them, or none of them. However, the patients who were administered with HCQ were facing a doubled risk of suffering with a cardiac arrest, the research found.

"Among patients hospitalized in metropolitan New York with COVID-19, treatment with hydroxychloroquine, azithromycin, or both, compared with neither treatment, was not significantly associated with differences in in-hospital mortality," the researchers concluded.

Their study was published four days after a research work featured in the New England Journal of Medicine showed the drug doesn't fight the virus. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had also marked its difference with the President over the use of HCQ, as the medicine is feared to increase the risk of heart attacks.

Even as the euphoria around HCQ has been diminished, it is unlikely to be removed from the list of drugs that can be administered to COVID-19 patients. But the number of victims opting to be treated with the medicine may reduce, as consecutive studies have not only pointed towards its ineffectiveness, but also red-flagged the consequences which heart patients may suffer.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on May 16, 2020 09:22 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).