Analysis of the Prophylactic use of Hydroxychloroquine at the Beginning of the COVID-19 Pandemic Among Physicians
Gönenli et al.,
Analysis of the Prophylactic use of Hydroxychloroquine at the Beginning of the COVID-19 Pandemic Among..,
Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology, doi:10.36519/idcm.2022.111 (date from earlier preprint)
Small prophylaxis survey showing lower, but not statistically significant, progression to pneumonia (3 of 148 HCQ, 12 of 416 control), RR 0.70, p = 0.77. There was a higher incidence of cases with HCQ, OR 1.19, p = 0.58, which may be due to survey bias, treatment self-selection, and inconsistent regimens. Improvement on severity may be related to the higher HCQ concentration in lung tissue, and also reflect that binary PCR does not distinguish replication-competence. Details of the pneumonia numbers for treatment/control are from the author, it's unclear why the lower progression to pneumonia was not reported in the paper.
risk of pneumonia, 29.7% lower, RR 0.70, p = 0.77, treatment 3 of 148 (2.0%), control 12 of 416 (2.9%), NNT 117.
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risk of case, 18.9% higher, RR 1.19, p = 0.58, treatment 8 of 148 (5.4%), control 20 of 416 (4.8%), odds ratio converted to relative risk.
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Effect extraction follows pre-specified rules prioritizing more serious outcomes. Submit updates
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Gönenli et al., 16 Dec 2020, retrospective, Turkey, peer-reviewed, survey, mean age 36.0, 9 authors, study period 14 May, 2020 - 13 June, 2020.
Contact:
ikayi@ku.edu.tr.
Abstract: ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Infect Dis Clin Microbiol 2022; 4(4): 236-43
Analysis of the Prophylactic use of
Hydroxychloroquine at the Beginning of the
COVID-19 Pandemic Among Physicians
Mehmet Gökhan Gönenli1 , İlker Kayı2 , Nilüfer Alpay Kanıtez1 , Tuba Baydaş3 , Murat Köse4
Nalbantoğlu1 , Miraç Vural Keskinler5 , Timur Selçuk Akpınar4 , Önder Ergönül6,7
, Emine Ayça
¹ Department of Internal Medicine, Koç University Hospital, İstanbul, Turkey
2 Department of Public Health, Koç University Hospital, İstanbul, Turkey
3 Department of Internal Medicine, Bezmialem University Hospital, İstanbul, Turkey
4 Department of Internal Medicine, İstanbul University İstanbul School of Medicine, İstanbul, Turkey
5 Department of Internal Medicine, Istanbul Medeniyet University, Göztepe Education and Research Hospital, İstanbul, Turkey
6 Department of Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology, Koç University School of Medicine, Istanbul, Turkey
7 Koç University İşbank Center for Infectious Diseases, Istanbul, Turkey
ABSTRACT
Objective: Throughout the pandemic, physicians working at the frontlines have embarked
on various quests to protect themselves, and many physicians preferred using hydroxychloroquine (HQN) as a prophylactic agent. This study aimed to investigate the reasons
leading physicians to use HQN and its effects on them.
Materials and Methods: This study is cross-sectional with a target population of physicians
working in pandemic hospitals in İstanbul, Turkey. We invited participants from seven hospitals via email between May 14 and June 13, 2020. An online questionnaire, including 57
questions, was sent to physicians.
Results: A total of 148 (26%) physicians out of 564 participants had used hydroxychloroquine for prevention. Older physicians and those with a history of exposure to COVID-19
patients without protection used prophylactic HQN more frequently. The use of HQN did
not differ statistically in terms of being infected among the exposed physicians (p=0.52).
Nineteen (13%) physicians using HQN developed side effects related to the drug. Diarrhea
and nausea were the most common.
Conclusion: Prophylactic HQN use was more common among physicians older than 40
years and with higher exposure rates to a COVID-19 patient without protection. The physicians working on the front line had the highest rate of infection. HQN was not effective in
the prophylaxis of COVID-19 among the exposed physicians.
Keywords: COVID-19, hydroxychloroquine, prophylaxis, physicians
Corresponding Author:
İlker Kayı
E-mail:
ikayi@ku.edu.tr
Received: December 6, 2021
Accepted: November 22, 2022
Published: December 21, 2022
Suggested citation:
Gönenli MG, Kayı İ, Alpay
Kanıtez N, Baydaş T, Köse M,
Nalbantoğlu EA, et al. Analysis
of the prophylactic use of
hydroxychloroquine at the
beginning of the COVID-19
pandemic among physicians.
Infect Dis Clin Microbiol.
2022;4:236-43.
DOI: 10.36519/idcm.2022.111
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial 4.0 International License.
236
HQN use among physicians during the pandemic
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