Background: During the first wave of COVID-19, hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) was used off-label despite the absence of evidence documenting its clinical benefits. Since then, a meta-analysis of randomised trials showed that HCQ use was associated with an 11% increase in the mortality rate. We aimed to estimate the number of HCQ-related deaths worldwide.[...]
Overall, using median estimates of HCQ use in each country, we estimated that 16,990 HCQ-related in-hospital deaths (range 6267-19256) occurred in the countries with available data.