Use of Hydroxychloroquine in Patients with COVID-19: A Retrospective Observational Study
Samah Mohamad Lotfy, Ahmad Abbas, Waheed Shouman
Turkish Thoracic Journal, doi:10.5152/turkthoracj.2021.20180
INTRODUCTION Corona viruses are important human and animal pathogens. Towards the end of 2019, a novel corona virus was identified as the cause of a cluster of pneumonia cases in Wuhan, a city in the Hubei Province of China. It rapidly spread, resulting in a global pandemic. The disease is termed as COVID-19, which stands for the corona virus disease 2019 [1] . There is no consensus on a certain drug therapy for COVID-19 infection as yet. A lot of drugs are under trial or are empirically included in treatment protocols for COVID-19. Drug re-purposing is the most widely used method for rapid response in the face of this epidemic. Trials to invent de novo medicines may not be the perfect rationale, while the death and infection toll is on the rise by the hour. Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) is an antimalarial and antirheumatic immunomodulating agent that has been suggested as an effective treatment for COVID-19 because of its anti-inflammatory and antiviral effects [2] [3] [4] [5] . Growing reports argue about the potential benefits of HCQ in reducing morbidity and mortality in patients hospitalized with COVID-19, but with inconsistent results [6] . So, the current work was conducted to test the potential benefits of HCQ on viral conversion, reducing the need for ICU, mechanical ventilation, and its impact on mortality.
MATERIAL AND METHODS This is a retrospective observational study. It was carried out at the Saudi National Hospital, Mecca, KSA, after obtaining the approval of the administrative manager and the hospital ethical committee. Patients with full files with document-
Ethics Committee Approval: Ethics Committee approval for the study was obtained from the Hospital Ethical Committee Saudi National Hospital (SNH1352020). Informed Consent: As it was a retrospective study, informed consent was not required. Peer-review: Externally peer-reviewed. Author Contributions: Concept -A.A., W.S.; Design-A.A., W.S.; Supervision -W.S.; Materials -W.S.; Data Collection and/or Processing -S.M.L.; Analysis and/or Interpretation -S.M.L., A.A., W.S.; Literature Review -A.A.; Writing -A.A., W.S.; Critical Review -S.M.L., A.A., W.S.
Conflict of Interest: The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.
Financial Disclosure: The authors declared that this study has received no financial support.
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