More than a third of people with lupus have struggled to fill their prescriptions of hydroxychloroquine, a drug largely touted by President Trump, during the coronavirus pandemic, a new survey found. Shortages of the drug in March and April occurred as media outlets and Mr. Trump reported possible benefits of hydroxychloroquine in treating or preventing COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus. The survey, conducted by the Lupus Research Alliance, found that participants had been...

U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said all coronavirus tests should be turned around within a day by the end of June, BBC News reported Wednesday. The 24-hour turnaround goal, announced last month but with no set deadline, would have to address “insuperable problems” such as postal delays, Mr. Johnson noted. Last week, Dido Harding, the head of England’s testing program, said 84% of tests at drive-in centers were returned within 24 hours and 95% of them within 48 hours, according to BBC News....

Researchers in the U.K. are studying a form of ibuprofen called flarin as a possible treatment option for COVID-19 respiratory symptoms. Flarin, also called lipid ibuprofen, can reduce inflammation and shield the stomach from irritation when taken. The researchers are trying to recruit 230 people ages 18 and older who have been hospitalized and experienced respiratory failure due to COVID-19 to participate in the study, the LIBERATE Trial in COVID-19. The study aims to assess how three doses...

A serious multisystem inflammatory syndrome that might be linked to the new coronavirus appeared to affect an “unusually high proportion” of children of African ancestry, according to a small study from a Paris hospital. Out of 21 children and adolescents who were admitted to the hospital with the inflammatory syndrome, 12 patients (57%) were of African ancestry, says the study, published Wednesday in the BMJ. The patients ranged from 3 to 16 years of age, with an average age of 7 years. The...

Emergency department visits dropped by 42% from late March through April, the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic, while the number of infectious disease-related visits increased fourfold during the same time frame, said a new federal report published Wednesday. There was an average of 1.2 million ER visits from March 29 to April 25 compared to 2.1 million visits per week from March 31 to April 27 of last year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The largest...