The United States has supplied Brazil with 2 million doses of hydroxychloroquine for use against the coronavirus, the two governments said on Sunday, according to Reuters.
The White House released a joint announcement on the drug, whose use has been touted both by US President Donald Trump and Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.
“The American and Brazilian people stand in solidarity in the fight against the coronavirus,” the statement said. “We are announcing the United States Government has delivered two million doses of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) to the people of Brazil.”
“HCQ will be used as a prophylactic to help defend Brazil’s nurses, doctors and healthcare professionals against the virus. It will also be used as a therapeutic to treat Brazilians who become infected,” it said.
The move comes despite medical warnings about risks associated with the anti-malaria drug.
Last week, the World Health Organization announced that it would be temporarily halting the use of hydroxychloroquine part of its global Solidarity trial amid a safety review.
The French health ministry later also announced it would be banning the use of hydroxychloroquine as a cure for coronavirus.
The decision follows the publication last week of a study in the Lancet, which indicated that using the drug on COVID-19 patients could increase their likelihood of dying, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a virtual press conference.
Trump said in mid-May that he was on a regimen of hydroxychloroquine as a preventive measure, even though the US Food and Drug Administration had issued a warning about its use for the coronavirus.
Bolsonaro said recently he kept a box of the drug in case his 93-year-old mother needed it.