Abstract: antibiotics Article Antiviral Used among Non-Severe COVID-19 Cases in Relation to Time till Viral Clearance: A Retrospective Cohort Study Wael Hafez 1,2, *, Husam Saleh 1 , Ziad Al Baha 1 , Mishal Tariq 1 , Samah Hamdan 1 and Shougyat Ahmed 1 1 2 *



 Citation: Hafez, W.; Saleh, H.; Al Baha, Z.; Tariq, M.; Hamdan, S.; Ahmed, S. Antiviral Used among Non-Severe COVID-19 Cases in Relation to Time till Viral Clearance: A Retrospective Cohort Study. Antibiotics 2022, 11, 498. https:// doi.org/10.3390/antibiotics11040498 NMC Royal Hospital, 16th Street, Khalifa City, Abu Dhabi P.O. BOX 35233, United Arab Emirates; husam.saleh@nmc.ae (H.S.); ziad.albaha@nmc.ae (Z.A.B.); mishal.tariq@nmc.ae (M.T.); samah.hamdan@nmc.ae (S.H.); shougyat.ahmed@nmc.ae (S.A.) The Medical Research Division, Department of Internal Medicine, The National Research Center, El Buhouth Street, Cairo 12622, Egypt Correspondence: wael.hafez@nmc.ae; Tel.: +971-22035000 or +971-561987354 Abstract: (1) Background: The WHO identified COVID-19 as a fast-growing epidemic worldwide. A few antivirals have shown promising effectiveness in treating COVID-19. This study aimed to assess the correlation between antiviral drugs and the time until viral clearance of SARS-CoV-2. (2) Methods: This was a retrospective cohort study that included 1731 non-severe COVID-19 patients treated in NMC Royal Hospital, UAE. (3) Results: A total of 1446 patients received symptomatic treatment only (mean age of 35.6 ± 9.0 years). The analyzed antiviral treatment protocols were azithromycin, hydroxychloroquine, lopinavir/ritonavir, and favipiravir. The produced Kaplan–Meier plots showed no significant differences in the time until viral clearance among the compared protocols, which showed overlapping confidence intervals, which were determined by performing the log-rank and adjusted pairwise log-rank tests (p = 0.2, log-rank = 9.3). The age and gender of patients did not significantly affect the rate of viral clearance regardless of the antiviral therapy administered, even when compared to patients who received symptomatic treatment only, with the exception of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), azithromycin, and favipiravir, which increased the odds of a faster rate of viral clearance by 46% after adjustments. (4) Conclusions: No significant differences were observed regarding the time until viral clearance among non-severe COVID-19 patients following the prescription of different antiviral drugs. Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; antiviral drugs; drug repurposing; viral clearance; symptomatic treatment Academic Editors: Diaa Alrahmany and Islam M. Ghazi Received: 4 March 2022 Accepted: 4 April 2022 Published: 8 April 2022 Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Copyright: © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/