Washington – Taking hydroxychloroquine shortly after being exposed to Covid-19 does not help prevent infection in a statistically meaningful way, reported scientists following a clinical trial.
The drug has been touted by US President Donald Trump, who has said he used it as a prophylaxis against the novel coronavirus.
An experiment involving 812 people across the US and Canada showed it did not work significantly better than a placebo for this purpose.
The study was conducted at the University of Minnesota and the paper was published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
719 of the participants in the study were considered to be “high risk” exposure as they wore neither a face mask nor an eyeshield at the time of exposure, while the rest were considered “moderate risk” because they covered their face but did not have goggles.
“This randomised trial did not demonstrate significant benefit of hydroxychloroquine as postexposure prophylaxis for Covid-19,” wrote the authors of the report
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