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U.S President Donald Trump has already suggested an anti-malaria drug Hydroxychloroquine to treat coronavirus patients. The UK has made the fastest growing trial in UK medical history. Now, coronavirus patients in at least two NHS hospitals are being treated with an anti-malaria drug Hydroxychloroquine. It has been given to patients of London’s Barts Health NHS Trust and the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital (RD&E) since late March 2020. The above-mentioned drug is one of a number of drugs being tested in the UK’s Randomized Evaluation, as trials of Covid-19 Therapy Recovery. It has been considered the world’s largest randomized clinical trial of potential coronavirus treatments. The recovery is being coordinated at Oxford University.

They have signed up 1,000 patients from 132 different hospitals in its first 15 days and recently reported to have more than 3,000 volunteers. Hydroxychloroquine has been called a game-changer by the US president, in spite of his top adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci’s warning over the widespread use of it as an untested treatment for Covid-19. Trump informed the American people and said, “Take it. What do you have to lose”? He was prompting warnings from leading cardiac organizations that the drug can dangerously disrupt heart rhythms in some patients. The latter now-discredited 2 small studies in China and France without proper control groups, as it suggests the drug may help coronavirus patients.

It is noteworthy that laboratory research has also suggested the drug may stop some coronaviruses and influenza entering cultured cells, but trials on human influenza patients didn’t show such effect. The drug was created 75 years ago and is used to treat lupus and rheumatoid arthritis. Its ability to calm overactive immune systems has boosted hopes it may help counter Covid-19. It can cause the body’s infection response to go into a state of dangerous overdrive, called a cytokine storm. Point to be noted that 56-years old Claire Fuller was taken into RD&E on 31^st March. She said, “It was really scary how it just suddenly turned. It didn’t take long for me to agree. The more people they get the better”.