“As of April 22, 2020, 321 cases of undesirable effects were declared in connection with an infection with Covid-19, including 80% of serious cases “, details the National agency of safety of the drug, which had announced a hundred cases on April 10.
In two-thirds of the cases (215 people), the pharmacovigilance survey was able to conclude that there was a probable link between the effect observed and the medication administered to the patient with Covid-19.
Among these, more than half concern patients with coronavirus treated with hydroxychloroquine (23%) or by this drug combined with the antibiotic azithromycin (31%), while 42% relate to Kaletra (an antiretroviral combining lopinavir and ritonavir).
The number of deaths observed in this context is still four, all linked to hydroxychloroquine and occurred in a hospital environment. This medication, a derivative of the antimalarial chloroquine, is known to cause electrical abnormalities in the functioning of the heart in some patients, visible on the EKG, which can lead to heart rhythm disturbances or even death.
Reserve hydroxychloroquine for hospital use
But it seems that “Covid-19 patients are more fragile on the cardiovascular level and therefore more likely than ordinary people to have problems with drugs that are harmful to the heart “such as hydroxychloroquine, explained the director general of the ANSM, Dominique Martin, in early April.
The side effects linked to Kaletra are mainly damage to the liver, but also to the digestive system, heart and kidneys. These reports of side effects do not reflect “the exhaustiveness of the number of cases actually occurred, and this in particular because of the very strong under-notification, but allows to issue signals to take risk reduction measures“, such as reserving hydroxychloroquine for hospital use, stresses the ANSM.
