Jahnavi Sarma
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Written By: Jahnavi Sarma | Updated : August 26, 2020 9:25 AM IST
Hydroxychloroquine has been highly touted as a potential treatment and prevention measure against COVID-19. © Shutterstock
The COVID-19 pandemic has stopped normal life as we know it in its track for a long time now. Since the beginning of the global health crisis, scientists have been exploring the role that existing drugs in the fight against the disease. Hydroxychloroquine is one such drug that received the attention of scientists across the world. But the malaria drug, hydroxychloroquine, has also long been in the centre of controversy regarding its role in the treatment of COVID-19 patients. Many studies have been carried out regarding its efficacy. Experts have come out with varying opinions and many countries have today stopped using this drug for infected patients. But now a new study in Belgium says that hydroxychloroquine may not be without benefits.
Researchers from Belgium, who went through the hospital data of 8,075 patients, has found that low doses of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) was associated with lower mortality in hospitalised patients with COVID-19 diagnosed and treated early or later after onset of symptoms. The anti-malarial drug HCQ has been largely used and investigated as a therapy of COVID-19 across various settings, at a total dose usually ranging from 2,400 mg to 9,600 mg. This was an observational study of data collected using standardised report forms during the most critical phase of the epidemic in Belgium.
In Belgium, the use of low-dose HCQ (2,400 mg in total over five days) was recommended for hospitalised patients with COVID-19, said the study published in the International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents. Researchers conducted a retrospective analysis of in-hospital mortality in the Belgian national COVID-19 hospital surveillance data. Patients treated either with HCQ alone and supportive care (HCQ group) were compared to patients treated with supportive care only (no-HCQ group).
Of 8,075 patients with complete discharge data on May 24 and diagnosed before May 1, 4,542 received HCQ in monotherapy and 3,533 were in the no-HCQ group. Death was reported in 804 of 4542 (17.7 per cent) and 957 of the 3,533 (27.1 per cent) group, respectively. In the multivariable analysis, the mortality was lower in the HCQ group compared to the no-HCQ group.
So far, the impact of HCQ on the outcome of SARS-CoV-2 infection in humans remains undetermined. An increasing number of studies using various HCQ dosages are being published with conflicting results. Recently, the UK-based trials communicated that HCQ at the study dosage of 9,200 to 9,600 mg over 10 days provided no benefit in hospitalised patients with COVID-19.
In the present study, researchers retrospectively assessed the association between HCQ monotherapy and in-hospital mortality in a nationwide registry of 8,075 COVID-19 patients. According to researchers, considering the availability and cheapness of HCQ, it seems worth further investigating the clinical effect of optimised dosage of HCQ and designing "add-on studies in ongoing trials to monitor, beyond the viral shedding and infectiousness, a relevant set of inflammatory markers during the course of SARS-CoV-2 infection".
(With inputs from IANS)
