Study: HCQ is ineffective as preventive antiviral against coronavirus

According to a new study published in journal ‘Annals of Rheumatic Diseases’, anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) is t a possible defence against Covid-19 in patients with lupus and rheumatoid arthritis. research has been done by few researchers at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. Researchers have focussed on patients with systemic lupus erymatosus and RA because HCQ intake of se patients is frequent. Informal reports during early sts of pandemic showed that se patients were unaffected by Covid-19 virus. refore, researchers n explored HCQ in lab and found it effective against virus.

HCQ t effective for Covid-19

According to study, re are more recent studies that have established how HCQ is t effective in treating moderate-to-severe hospitalized cases. However, treatment with HCQ early in disease or for mild cases is still under review. Mendel Singer, le author of study from case Western Reserve University in US said that, “Our study shows, with a large degree of confidence, that HCQ is ineffective as a preventive antiviral in people with SLE and/or RA taking drugs that suppress ir immune system, putting m at greater risk. Given how study was structured, one can make an educated extension that it is t effective in preventing COVID-19 in people without those conditions. It is t uncommon for something to show promise in lab, and n prove ineffective in more complex biological landscape of humans”. 

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As a part of study, large importance was given to national database. De-identified patient data was pulled out from 36 health systems and n a much larger study than previous work was compiled. previous studies h fewer than 20 Covid-19 patients with SLE and/or RA. However, this study h 159 Covid-19 patients. This study showed that patients with SLE or RA who contracted COVID-19 were just as likely to be taking HCQ as SLE or RA patients who did t get COVID-19. Mendel Singer said that “By drawing on data from a relatively large patient population with lupus and/or RA, we can offer a higher level of confidence in our findings”.

He ded, “We see from this large retrospective review that this drug is ineffective in preventing COVID-19 in se patients who have been taking HCQ. If HCQ were effective in prevention, we would have seen fewer HCQ-taking SLE/RA patients with COVID-19, but did t. This likely means that HCQ is t active against SARS-CoV-2 virus in humans—versus in lab—and is unlikely to be an effective preventive antiviral for anyone”. 

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Singer was accompanied by David Kaelber who is a professor of internal medicine, pediatrics, and population and quantitative health sciences and co-director of Center for Education and Training in Health Informatics at School of Medicine and chief medical informatics officer at MetroHealth System. Maria Antonelli was also a part of research. She is a professor of medicine at School of Medicine and a rheumatologist at MetroHealth System. TriNetX Research Network which is a federated health-research network provided data for patients. 

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