MALAYSIA has stopped using the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine to treat Covid-19 patients as it has been found ineffective, said director-general of health Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

“We used it in the beginning as it has anti-inflammatory attributes. 

“But after rechecking the data on 500 cases (that used the drug), we found that there were no positive effects,” he told reporters in Putrajaya today.

He said the Health Ministry was also informed that 30% of the cases treated by the drug had developed complications.

“As such, we have stopped using hydroxychloroquine.”

The decision to stop using the drug is based on current data that showed its inefficacy, he aded.

Malaysia was among of the few countries, including the United States, to use hydroxychloroquine to treat Covid-19 patients amid disputes over its efficacy.

In the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, Noor Hisham said Malaysia was using it to treat patients with mild symptoms, or stages 1 and 2 of Covid-19, as the drug helped to prevent the infection from growing worse.

But on June 15, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) revoked its approval for the emergency use of hydroxychloroquine to treat Covid-19 patients.

The FDA said research had failed to find any benefit in treating Covid-19 patients with hydroxychloroquine.

“In light of ongoing serious cardiac adverse events and other serious side effects, the known and potential benefits” of hydroxychloroquine no longer outweigh those risks, the FDA wrote on its website. – June 22, 2020.