These are excerpts from a recent article in Science News:
Safety concerns about hydroxychloroquine have mainly come from use of the drug in people who are sick in the hospital with COVID-19, says Susanna Naggie, an infectious disease doctor at Duke University School of Medicine. She is leading a clinical trial testing hydroxychloroquine as a prophylactic to protect healthcare workers exposed to COVID-19 patients. Because of reports of harm in very sick COVID-19 patients, “people have kind of forgotten about the decades of safety data that we do have in an ambulatory, healthy population,” she says.
So far, studies looking at hydroxychloroquine use before or early in infection haven’t produced any of the heart rhythm problems seen in studies of seriously ill patients. “When used alone, we’re not seeing major issues,” says Sarah Lofgren, an infectious disease doctor at the University of Minnesota Medical School in Minneapolis, where researchers are testing hydroxychloroquine’s ability to prevent COVID-19. “Out of our thousands of patients, we’re not seeing things people are quite concerned about, particularly the heart arrhythmias.”
There are a number of studies going on.
I understand that the two Univ of Minn studies have wrapped up,
and we should have their results soon.