HealthDay Reports: Hydroxychloroquine Seems Not to Cut Ventilator Use in COVID-19
The authors wrote that their findings suggest caution in using hydroxychloroquine in hospitalized COVID-19 patients, particularly when not combined with azithromycin.
Hydroxychloroquine Seems Not to Cut Ventilator Use in COVID-19
WEDNESDAY, April 22, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- There is no evidence that use of hydroxychloroquine alone (HC) or with azithromycin (HC+AZ) reduces the risks for mechanical ventilation or death from any cause in patients hospitalized with COVID-19, according to a study that has not yet been peer reviewed and was posted online April 21 at medRxiv.org.
Joseph Magagnoli, from the Columbia VA Health Care System in South Carolina, and colleagues performed a retrospective analysis of data from 368 patients hospitalized with confirmed severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection: 97 treated with HC, 113 with HC+AZ, and 158 with no HC.
The researchers found that the rates of death were 27.8, 22.1, and 11.4 percent, respectively, in the HC, HC+AZ, and no HC groups.