Brasilia, April 16 (RHC)-- In Brazili, eleven people have died in Manaus, in the state of Amazonas, during a study conducted with high doses of the drug chloroquine -- Donald Trump's favorite remedy.

According to reports from Brasilia, 81 patients participated in the research, 41 of whom received a high dose of chloroquine.  After three days of treatment, those who received the highest doses of chloroquine began to have heart arrhythmias.  On the sixth day of treatment, 11 of them died -- leading the group of researchers to abandon the investigation.

The patients in the study were also given the antibiotic azithromycin, a drug that presents the same cardiac risk.  The data is still preliminary, not conclusive, which means that more studies are needed on the relationship between the drug, the disease and the deaths.  According to sources close to Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, he is pushing -- along with his good friend Donald Trump -- for more tests of the drug, despite health risks for patients.

Scientists from various entities participated in the research, such as the Dr. Heitor Vieira Dourado Tropical Medicine Foundation, Fiocruz Amazonas, the Amazon Health Surveillance Foundation, the Oswaldo Cruz Institute, among others.