Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2020 Nov:38:100776.
doi: 10.1016/j.nmni.2020.100776. Epub 2020 Oct 5.

Hydroxychloroquine is effective, and consistently so when provided early, for COVID-19: a systematic review

C Prodromos  1 , T Rumschlag  2
Affiliations
Review

Hydroxychloroquine is effective, and consistently so when provided early, for COVID-19: a systematic review

C Prodromos et al. New Microbes New Infect. 2020 Nov.

Abstract

Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) has shown efficacy against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in some but not all studies. We hypothesized that a systematic review would show HCQ to be effective against COVID-19, more effective when provided earlier, not associated with worsening disease and safe. We searched PubMed, Cochrane, Embase, Google Scholar and Google for all reports on HCQ as a treatment for COVID-19 patients. This included preprints and preliminary reports on larger COVID-19 studies. We examined the studies for efficacy, time of administration and safety. HCQ was found to be consistently effective against COVID-19 when provided early in the outpatient setting. It was also found to be overall effective in inpatient studies. No unbiased study found worse outcomes with HCQ use. No mortality or serious safety adverse events were found. HCQ is consistently effective against COVID-19 when provided early in the outpatient setting, it is overall effective against COVID-19, it has not produced worsening of disease and it is safe.

Keywords: Azithromycin; COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; hydroxychloroquine; outpatient.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Monforte AdA., Tavelli A., Bai F., Marchetti G., Cozzi-Lepri A. Effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine in COVID-19 disease: a done and dusted situation? Int J Infect Dis. 2020 - PMC - PubMed
    1. Guérin V., Lévy P., Thomas J.L., Lardenois T., Lacrosse P., Sarrazin E. Azithromycin and hydroxychloroquine accelerate recovery of outpatients with mild/moderate COVID-19. Asian J Med Health. 2020;18:45–55.
    1. Mallat J., Hamed F., Balkis M., Mohamed M.A., Mooty M., Malik A., Nusair A. Hydroxychloroquine is associated with slower viral clearance in clinical COVID-19 patients with mild to moderate disease: a retrospective study. medRxiv. 2020 - PMC - PubMed
    1. Cavalcanti A.B., Zampieri F.G., Azevedo L.C., Rosa R.G., Avezum A., Veiga V.C. Hydroxychloroquine alone or in combination with azithromycin to prevent major clinical events in hospitalised patients with coronavirus infection (COVID-19): rationale and design of a randomised, controlled clinical trial. medRxiv. 2020
    1. Zelenko V. 23 March 2020. Open letter describing Covid-19 treatment protocol.http://www.nunesfarma.com.br/download.php?id=TlRBPQ== Available at: