The President of the Republic went to Marseille on Thursday to meet the controversial Professor Raoult. The latter revealed to him a new study, larger than the last, carried out on 1,061 patients through his department.
Emmanuel Macron is expected in a few days, Monday, for a new speech, where he should speak on many subjects such as masks, tests or deconfinement. In the meantime, the Head of State consults with many specialists, including the famous professor Didier Raoult. After having made a first trip Thursday morning to the Kremlin-Bicêtre hospital (Val-de-Marne), where he met with university hospital teams to take stock of the search for treatments, the politician spent three hours at the Institut Hospitalo-Universitaire (IHU) in Marseille.
The two men discussed coordination in therapeutic trials at European level. The infectious disease specialist then presented him with the latest study from his services, which he says confirms the effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine (a derivative of chloroquine, a drug against malaria) as soon as the first symptoms of Covid- appear. 19. According to these results relating to 1,061 patients, of which the Head of State took cognizance, the virological cure was obtained in 973 patients in 10 days (ie 91.7% success rate).
60,000 tests
In spite of himself, Didier Raoult had already published two studies on hydroxychloroquine. In late February, in a video, he announced that this synthetic derivative of quinine prescribed for several decades against malaria, combined with azithromycin, an antibiotic, would be the lethal weapon to inhibit the virus in a few days. He said that of 24 patients treated at the IHU with hydroxychloroquine, 75% had a negative viral load after six days. Following these revelations, critics fell, denouncing in particular the very small number of patients concerned.
The scientist nevertheless continues his research. He does numerous tests and draws a new, larger study, which would corroborate his previous conclusions. It was published on the IHU pre-prints site. In detail, "from March 3 to April 9, 59,655 samples from 38,617 patients were tested for COVID-19. Of the 3,165 positive patients placed in the care of the institute, 1,061 previously unpublished patients responded the inclusion criteria determined by the team. Their median age was 43.8 years and 46.4% were men (493) were tested. No cardiac toxicity was observed, "the study said.
Healing in 91% of cases
"Virologic healing was achieved in 973 patients in 10 days (91.7%). Prolonged viral carriage at the end of treatment was observed in 47 patients (4.4%) and was associated with a higher viral load at the time of diagnosis, but the viral culture was negative on day 10 and all but one were eliminated on the fifteenth day, "said the study. A poor result was observed for 46 patients (4.3%). 10 were transferred to intensive care, 5 aged between 74 and 95 years have since died (0.47%), and 31 required 10 days of hospitalization or more. Among this group, "25 are cured at the time of publication, and 16 are still hospitalized".
"The hydroxychloroquine-azithromycin combination, when started immediately after diagnosis, is a safe and effective treatment for Covid-19, with a mortality rate of 0.5% in older patients. It prevents worsening and eliminates the persistence and contagiousness of the virus in most cases, "said the researcher.
These results will now be analyzed by the Scientific Council and the Minister of Health, Olivier Véran. For its part, the pharmaceutical group Sanofi said Friday that it is not yet possible at this stage to "draw any conclusion " on the efficacy of hydroxychloroquine in the treatment of Covid-19.