No benefit of hydroxychloroquine in patients affected by mild to moderate COVID-19 disease

Objectives:
Does hydroxychloroquine supplementation show beneficial effects in patients affected by mild to moderate COVID-19 disease?

Study design:
This review article included 7 RCTs with a total of 4,984 COVID-19 patients, of which 1,721 (34.5%) received hydroxychloroquine or its congeners (HCQ group) while 3,091 (62.01%) received standard of care or had included antiviral medication (control group).

Results and conclusions:   
The investigators found the pooled estimate of successful treatment in the hydroxychloroquine group and the control group was 77.45% and 77.87% respectively, which indicated similar clinical outcomes in patients treated with hydroxychloroquine compared to the control group.

The investigators found the odds ratio of a favourable outcome with hydroxychloroquine was 1.11 [95 CI = 0.72 to 1.69] which was statistically not significant [p = 0.20].

The investigators found the pooled risk difference of favourable outcome with hydroxychloroquine versus control group was 0.00 [95 CI = -0.03 to 0.03], which was statistically not significant [p = 0.10].

The investigators concluded the present evidence shows no benefit of hydroxychloroquine in patients affected by mild to moderate COVID-19 disease. However, now several trials on HCQ are ongoing and hopefully more data will be available soon. Hence, the management of COVID-19 is set to change for better in the future.

Original title:
No benefit of hydroxychloroquine in COVID-19: Results of Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials" by Pathak SK, Salunke AA, […], Menon V.

Link:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32905939/  

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