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
. 2021 Jul-Sep;46(3):380-388.
doi: 10.4103/ijcm.IJCM_539_20. Epub 2021 Oct 13.

A Systematic Review on the Therapeutic Relevance of Hydroxychloroquine/Chloroquine in the Management of COVID-19

Gerard Mccabe  1   2 , Dhruv Satya Sahni  1   2 , Srishti Ramsaha  3
Affiliations
Review

A Systematic Review on the Therapeutic Relevance of Hydroxychloroquine/Chloroquine in the Management of COVID-19

Gerard Mccabe et al. Indian J Community Med. 2021 Jul-Sep.

Abstract

Background: The coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is coming to the fore and has surfaced as a public health emergency of international concern. The lack of vaccines or an effective treatment has led to the global hunt for potential pharmaceuticals in adequately managing this disease. This systematic review highlights the efficacy of chloroquine and its derivative hydroxychloroquine in the treatment of COVID-19 and also explores the safety profile of these drugs.

Methods: EMBASE, COCHRANE, and PubMed databases were searched for studies on the use of hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine in the treatment of COVID-19.

Results: Twenty articles were selected including expert opinions, National Guidelines, three small randomized controlled trials, and one prospective study. Both hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine have shown promising results including reduction in hospital length of stay and overall mortality. Moreover, concomitant use with azithromycin seems to reduce viral load to a greater extent.

Conclusions: Considering the known safety profile of these drugs in the treatment of other diseases, their availability and affordability, chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine are potential antiviral agents in the treatment of COVID-19. However, reported side effects of these drugs when used in conjunction with azithromycin in patients with comorbidities have raised significant safety concerns. High-quality randomized clinical trials are warranted to provide more comprehensive evidence of the safety of these drugs in patients infected with COVID-19.

Keywords: Chloroquine; coronavirus; coronavirus disease 2019; hydroxychloroquine; pneumonia; severe acute respiratory syndrome-CoV-2.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

There are no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
PRISMA flow diagram for search outcome of systematic review on the use of chloroquine/hydroxychloroquine as a treatment option for COVID-19
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. [Last accessed on 2020 Aug 17]. Available from: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/
    1. Guan W-j, Ni Z-y, Hu Y, Liang W-h, Ou C-q, He J-x, et al. Clinical Characteristics of Coronavirus Disease 2019 in China. New England Journal of Medicine. 2020;382:1708–20. - PMC - PubMed
    1. [Last accessed on 2020 Sep 01]. Available from: https://www.who.int/news-room/commentaries/detail/transmission-of-sars-c... .
    1. Liu Q, Wang R, Qu G, Wang Y, Liu P, Zhu Y. General anatomy report of novel coronavirus pneumonia patients. J Forensic Med. 2020;36:21–23.
    1. Gao J, Tian Z, Yang X. Breakthrough: Chloroquine phosphate has shown apparent efficacy in treatment of COVID-19 associated pneumonia in clinical studies. Biosci Trends. 2020;14:72–3. - PubMed