TRUE: The World Health Organization has stopped trials of hydroxychloroquine, HIV drug treatment for COVID-19
Interim results from the drug trials do not show a clear improvement in survival rates of hospitalized COVID-19 patients.
An article published by China Global Television Network (CGTN) claiming that the World Health Organization (WHO) has halted trials of hydroxychloroquine and HIV drugs as a potential treatment for COVID-19 is TRUE.
The trial used a combination of the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine and the HIV drug lopinavir/ritonavir for treatment, but failed to reduce mortality.
In a statement dated July 4, the global health body announced that trials were stopped following recommendations made by the steering committee of Solidarity Trials International.
Solidarity is an international clinical trial launched by the WHO and its partners to help find an effective treatment for COVID-19.
The recommendation was based on evidence presented during a WHO summit on COVID-19 research and innovation held from 1 to 2 July, which showed that the drugs used in the trial provided little or no mortality prevention in hospitalized COVID-19 patients compared to standard hospital care.
The WHO says that the decision to discontinue the trial in hospitalized patients does not affect the possible evaluation of the two drugs in non-hospitalized patients or in other studies. The interim Solidarity results are now being readied for peer-review publication.
Other drugs being investigated as potential COVID-19 treatments under the Solidarity trial program include the Ebola drug Remdesivir, and Interferon Beta-1a, which is used to treat multiple sclerosis.
PesaCheck has looked into the claim that the World Health Organization has halted trials of hydroxychloroquine and HIV drugs as a potential treatment for COVID-19, and finds it to be TRUE.
This post is part of an ongoing series of PesaCheck fact-checks examining content marked as potential misinformation on Facebook and other social media platforms.
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This fact-check was written by PesaCheck Fact-Checker Simon Muli and edited by PesaCheck Deputy Editor Enock Nyariki.
The article was approved for publication by PesaCheck Managing Editor Eric Mugendi.
PesaCheck is East Africa’s first public finance fact-checking initiative. It was co-founded by Catherine Gicheru and Justin Arenstein, and is being incubated by the continent’s largest civic technology and data journalism accelerator: Code for Africa. It seeks to help the public separate fact from fiction in public pronouncements about the numbers that shape our world, with a special emphasis on pronouncements about public finances that shape government’s delivery of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) public services, such as healthcare, rural development and access to water/sanitation. PesaCheck also tests the accuracy of media reportage. To find out more about the project, visit pesacheck.org.
PesaCheck is an initiative of Code for Africa, through its innovateAFRICA fund, with support from Deutsche Welle Akademie, in partnership with a coalition of local African media and other civic watchdog organisations.
