23 May 2020

Anti-malaria drug used and promoted by President Trump linked to higher mortality rate in new study

The anti-malaria drug taken and promoted by President Trump to combat coronavirus actually increases the risk of patients with the disease dying from it, a new study claims.

The findings, published in medical journal The Lancet medical journal came from research into the use of hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine on 96,000 patients across 671 hospitals in six different continents.

Trump has been widely criticised for his response to the coronavirus crisis (DPA/PA Images)

And experts came to the conclusion that by using an educated estimate patients who took a form of the drug had a 13 per cent chance of dying from the virus, compared with nine per cent for those who did not.

A leading doctor involved in the study, Dr Mandeep Mehra - a heart specialist at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts - said: "Not only is there no benefit, but we saw a very consistent signal of harm."

The study also found that patients taking the drug were five times more likely to suffer from a serious heart rhythm problem as a result.

It calls into question the reasoning behind the President’s persistent promotion of the drug as a way to combat the coronavirus.

The New York Times has put forward the theory that Trump is doing so in order to increase the profit for pharmaceutical companies selling the drug.

His endorsement during the pandemic has been widely criticised as ill-informed and lacking in evidence.

The best videos delivered daily

Watch the stories that matter, right from your inbox