PUTRAJAYA: Malaysia has stopped using hydroxychloroquine against Covid-19 as the decades-old malaria medicine has been proven to be ineffective on the coronavirus.
Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the decision was made after data collected from 500 cases showed the medicine had no effect on those infected with the virus.
"It has been used on Covid-19 patients as an off-label medication at the early stage because it has anti-inflammatory properties.
"Based on data collected from 500 cases, we found that the drug has no effect. We stopped using it when we learnt about the outcome.
"We were also informed there was a 30 per cent complication rate to the heart and eye, so we had to monitor the usage," he said at the daily Covid-19 press conference today.
Dr Noor Hisham said the ministry still studied the effectiveness of other medications including drugs used for HIV, lopinavir/ritonavir.
With Malaysia's recovery rate at more than 95 per cent now, he said it's difficult for the Health Ministry to run clinical trial of remdesivir on Covid-19.
"We do not have enough patients to test the medicine, although we have been identified by the World Health Organisation as one of the centres for the clinical trial.
"Now, our recovery rate is more than 95 per cent and the death rate is at 1.41 per cent which is good for our country," he said, adding he hoped the promising development would continue in treating and preventing any fatality related to Covid-19.
Dr Noor Hisham also said the ministry would conduct a research soon to check antibodies of those who had recovered from Covid-19.
"It was reported the antibody would only last for about three months in the Covid-19 patients, hence, we will soon conduct a research to check whether they still have the antibodies," he said.