The ‘myth of Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) as post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) for the prevention of COVID-19’ is far from reality

DOI record: { "DOI": "10.1038/s41598-022-26053-w", "ISSN": [ "2045-2322" ], "URL": "http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-26053-w", "abstract": "<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>The efficacy of Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) as post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) for the prevention of COVID-19 was contentious. In this randomized control double-blind clinical trial, asymptomatic individuals with direct contact with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 cases were randomized into PEP/HCQ (N = 574) and control/placebo (N = 594) group. The PEP/HCQ group received tablet HCQ 400 mg q 12 hourly on day one followed by 400 mg once weekly for 3 weeks, and the control/Placebo group received matching Placebo. The incidence of COVID-19 was similar (p = 0.761) in PEP [N = 24 out of 574, (4.2%)] and control [N = 27 out of 594, (4.5%)] groups. Total absolute risk reduction for the incidence of new-onset COVID-19 was -0.3% points with an overall relative risk of 0.91 (95% confidence interval, 0.52 to 1.60) and the number needed to treat (NNT) was 333 to prevent the incident of one case of COVID-19. The study found that, PEP with HCQ was not advantageous for the prevention of COVID-19 in asymptomatic individuals with high risk for SARS-CoV-2 infection. Though HCQ is a safer drug, the practice of irrational and indiscriminate use of HCQ for COVID-19 should be restrained with better pharmacovigilance.</jats:p>", "alternative-id": [ "26053" ], "article-number": "378", "assertion": [ { "group": { "label": "Article History", "name": "ArticleHistory" }, "label": "Received", "name": "received", "order": 1, "value": "25 March 2022" }, { "group": { "label": "Article History", "name": "ArticleHistory" }, "label": "Accepted", "name": "accepted", "order": 2, "value": "8 December 2022" }, { "group": { "label": "Article History", "name": "ArticleHistory" }, "label": "First Online", "name": "first_online", "order": 3, "value": "7 January 2023" }, { "group": { "label": "Competing interests", "name": "EthicsHeading" }, "name": "Ethics", "order": 1, "value": "The authors declare no competing interests." } ], "author": [ { "affiliation": [], "family": "Dhibar", "given": "Deba Prasad", "sequence": "first" }, { "affiliation": [], "family": "Arora", "given": "Navneet", "sequence": "additional" }, { "affiliation": [], "family": "Chaudhary", "given": "Deepak", "sequence": "additional" }, { "affiliation": [], "family": "Prakash", "given": "Ajay", "sequence": "additional" }, { "affiliation": [], "family": "Medhi", "given": "Bikash", "sequence": "additional" }, { "affiliation": [], "family": "Singla", "given": "Neeraj", "sequence": "additional" }, { "affiliation": [], "family": "Mohindra", "given": "Ritin", "sequence": "additional" }, { "affiliation": [], "family": "Suri", "given": "Vikas", "sequence": "additional" }, { "affiliation": [], "family": "Bhalla", "given": "Ashish", "sequence": "additional" }, { "affiliation": [], "family": "Sharma", "given": "Navneet", "sequence": "additional" }, { "affiliation": [], "family": "Singh", "given": "Mini P.", "sequence": "additional" }, { "affiliation": [], "family": "Lakshmi", "given": "P. 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