A short therapeutic regimen based on hydroxychloroquine plus azithromycin for the treatment of COVID-19 in patients with non-severe disease. A strategy associated with a reduction in hospital admissions and complications.

Abstract: medRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.06.10.20101105; this version posted June 12, 2020. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted medRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license . TITLE: A short therapeutic regimen based on hydroxychloroquine plus azithromycin for the treatment of COVID-19 in patients with moderate disease. A strategy associated with a reduction in hospital admissions and complications. AUTHORS: José A. Oteo (1), Pedro Marco (2), Luis Ponce de León (3), Alejandra Roncero (3), Teófilo Lobera (3), Valentín Lisa (2). (1) Infectious Disease Department. Hospital Universitario San Pedro and Center of Biomedical Research of La Rioja (CIBIR). Piqueras 98. 26006 Logroño (Spain) (2) Emergency Department. Hospital Universitario San Pedro. Piqueras 98. 26006 Logroño (Spain) (3) Hospital Home-Care Unit. Piqueras 98. 26006 Logroño (Spain) Conflict of interest disclosure: Nothing to disclose. Funding: No external funding was received. Word count: 2,354 Author contributions: JAO, PM and VL conceived the study; LP, AR and TL supervised the data collection; JAO and PM drafted the manuscript, and all authors contributed substantially to its revision. JAO takes responsibility for the paper as a whole. Corresponding Author: José A. Oteo, M.D; PhD Department of Infectious Diseases Hospital Universitario San Pedro – Centro de Investigación Biomédica de La Rioja C/Piqueras 98. 26006 Logroño (Spain) jaoteo@riojasalud.es NOTE: This preprint reports new research that has not been certified by peer review and should not be used to guide clinical practice. medRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.06.10.20101105; this version posted June 12, 2020. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted medRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license . SUMMARY The new SARS-CoV-2 infection named COVID-19 has severely hit our Health System. At the time of writing this paper no medical therapy is officially recommended or has shown results in improving the outcomes in COVID-19 patients. With the aim of diminishing the impact in Hospital admissions and reducing the number of medical complications, we implemented a strategy based on a Hospital Home-Care Unit (HHCU) using an easy-to-use treatment based on an oral administration regimen outside the hospital with hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) plus azithromycin (AZM) for a short period of 5 days. Patients and methods: Patients ≥ 18 years old visiting the emergency room at the Hospital Universitario San Pedro de Logroño (La Rioja) between March, 31st and April, 12th diagnosed with COVID-19 with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection by a specific PCR, as follows: Patients with pneumonia (CURB ≤ 1) who did not present severe comorbidities and had no processes that contraindicated this therapeutic regime. Olygosimptomatic patients without pneumonia aged ≥ 55 years. Patients ≥ 18 years old without pneumonia with significant comorbidities. We excluded patients with known allergies to some of the antimicrobials used and patients treated with other drugs that increase the QTc or with QTc >450msc. The therapeutic regime was: HCQ 400 mg every twice in a loading dose followed by 200 mg twice for 5 days, plus AZM 500..