New Randomized Study on Hydroxychloroquine Released

The study covers 62 patients and compares 2 groups: one treated with hydroxychloroquine, without azithromycin, and a control / placebo group.

After 5 days of HCQ treatment, the symptoms of patients with COVID-19 were significantly relieved, manifesting as shorten in the recovery time for cough and fever. After 5 days, there was a larger proportion of patients with improved pneumonia in the HCQ treatment group (80.6%) compared with the control group (54.8%). There were 2 patients with mild adverse reactions in the HCQ group. All 4 patients that progressed to severe illness occurred in the control group, while no patient in the HCQ group did.

The study also comments about patients suffering from lupus (SLE – Systemic Lupus Erythematosus).

« Interestingly, through a follow-up survey, we found that none of our 80 SLE patients who took long-term oral HCQ had been confirmed to have SARS-CoV-2 infection or appeared to have related symptoms. »

Professor Didier Raout commented:

” A Chinese study shows that Hydroxychloroquine improves the prognosis with COVID+ patients (moderate to severe symptoms, intensive care unit excluded). Despite the small sample, the difference is significant. This shows the efficiency of the protocol”

Translation from French: original on Twitter.

The study was pre-released on March 30. It is titled « Efficacy of hydroxychloroquine in patients with COVID-19: results of a randomized clinical trial » and authored by Zhaowei Chen, Jijia Hu, Zongwei Zhang, Shan Shan Jiang, Shoumeng Han, Dandan Yan, Ruhong Zhuang, Ben Hu, Zhan Zhang

The study can be accessed here (.pdf)

Comment

This is a study with hydroxychloroquine administered alone, for just 5 days. French research has now shown that it’s the hydroxychloroquine / azithromycin combination that is more effective.

With 4 patients having developed severe illness, all in the control / placebo group, the Chinese research shows the major problem with control / placebo patients.

Resorting to placebo patients is something that the Marseille researchers refrain to do, for obvious ethical reasons, but that UK, Canadian, European and WHO research protocols insist upon doing, despite unnecessarily sending some patients to their death.

As for the Lupus data, they seem to confirm that hydroxychloroquine may be effective for prophylactic use – something that is of enormous importance, especially for those much exposed to the virus, such as health workers.