A combination of the drugs hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) and azithromycin is currently in use for the treatment of COVID-19 patients.
According to a Firstpost report, a new multinational retrospective study suggests that the combination of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) and azithromycin can have severe consequences on heart health. This study has been conducted by a group of researchers from the Columbia University Irving Medical Center, and has been published in the journal Lancet Rheumatology.
Hydroxychloroquine, primarily used in the treatment of malaria, belongs to a category of drugs called disease-modifying anti-arthritic drugs or DMARDs. It is also used to treat rheumatoid arthritis and systemic lupus erythematosus. The drug targets the body’s immune system to reduce inflammation.
On the other hand, azithromycin is an antibiotic drug that is used to treat bacterial diseases such as pneumonia and bronchitis. It comes in both tablet and liquid form.
Various studies conducted over the past few months have investigated the benefits as well as the potential side effects of HCQ and chloroquine alone, and in combination with azithromycin.
However, scientists are still to come to a conclusion on the effectiveness and safety of these drugs.
This latest study was led by Observational Health Data Sciences and Informatics (OHDSI), an international collaboration of academics, healthcare workers, regulators and industry scientists. The organisation collects and provides data on the history of an illness, and on the healthcare delivery and effects of interventions used to treat the disease, so that reliable healthcare decisions can be made.
The study collected its data from electronic health records and administrative claims spanning over a period of 20 years. 9,56,374 HCQ users, 3,10,350 sulfasalazine users, 3,23,122 users of HCQ and azithromycin and 3,51,956 users of HCQ with amoxicillin were included in the study. Patients from Japan, Germany, Spain, Netherlands, the UK, and the US were included in the study.
The research found that HCQ does not lead to any adverse effects when used for a short term, extending up to a period of about 30 days. However, patients using HCQ in the long term were found to have a 65 percent increased risk of death from cardiovascular conditions than those who had used sulfasalazine.
The risk was found to be even greater for the patients who had taken a combination of HCQ and azithromycin, even in the short term. The combination also increased the occurrence of chest pain and heart failure by about 15-20 per cent.
(With inputs from Firstpost)
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