South Africa is preparing to start two clinical trials involving the much-debated drugs hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine, which is being discussed for its effectiveness to treat Covid-19.

Infectious diseases specialist from the University of the Witwatersrand Jeremy Nel, said the Solidarity Trial's independent data and safety monitoring committee has reviewed evidence from this and other trials, and concluded that hydroxychloroquine presents no evidence of harm.

This came after The Lancet, the pre-eminent weekly medical journal, published a study on 22 May 2020 that flagged danger in using chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine to treat Covid-19.

"Each of the drug regimens of chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine alone or in combination with a macrolide was associated with an increased hazard for clinical significant occurrence of ventricular arrhythmias and increased risk of in-hospital death with Covid-19," the study concluded.

The study pulled together a lot of patients around the world, compared with early hydroxychloroquine clinical trials in countries such as China, but the researchers did not do randomised trials, in which a group of patients agree to do a trial and are divided into similar groups so the effects of the treatment can be more easily and clearly interpreted.

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