Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) emerged early in the course of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic as a possible drug with potential therapeutic and prophylactic benefits. It was quickly adopted in China, Europe, and the USA. A systematically review of the existing clinical evidence of HCQ use for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19 was performed by Rakedzon and colleagues from Rambam health Center, Haifa, Israel
The researcher all clinical studies
describing HCQ administration to treat or prevent COVID-19 in PubMed before
June 20, 2020. This included randomized controlled trials (RCTs), non-randomized
comparative cohorts, and case series studies that had all undergone peer
review.
A total of 623 studies were screened; 17
studies evaluating HCQ treatment were included. A total of 13 were
observational studies, and 4 were RCTs. In terms of effect on mortality rates,
observational studies provided conflicting results. As a whole, RCTs, including
one large British RCT that has not yet been published, showed no significant
effect of HCQ on mortality rates, clinical cure, and virologic response. The
use of HCQ as a post-exposure prophylactic agent was found to be ineffective in
one RCT. The authors concluded that there is no evidence supporting HCQ for
prophylaxis or treatment of COVID-19. Many observational trials were
methodologically flawed. Scientific efforts have been disappointingly
fragmented, and well-conducted trials have only recently been completed, more
than 7 months and 600,000 deaths into the pandemic.
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