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Correspondence
Is there a future for hydroxychloroquine/chloroquine in prevention of SARS-CoV-2 infection (COVID-19)?
  1. Sergey Moiseev1,
  2. Sergey Avdeev2,
  3. Michail Brovko1,
  4. Pavel Novikov1,
  5. Victor Fomin3
  1. 1 Tareev Clinic of Internal Diseases, Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University, Moscow, Russia
  2. 2 Clinic of Pulmonology, Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University, Moscow, Russia
  3. 3 Vinogradov Clinic of Internal Diseases, Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University, Moscow, Russia
  1. Correspondence to Professor Sergey Moiseev, Tareev Clinic of Internal Diseases, Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University, Moscow 119435, Russia; avt420034{at}yahoo.com

https://doi.org/10.1136/annrheumdis-2020-217570

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    In a recent article, Spinelli et al discussed a potential role of antimalarials in prevention of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection and suggest that, waiting for supportive data from clinical trials, the scientific community is moving towards pre-emptive use of chloroquine (CQ) and hydroxychloroquine (HCQ).1

    During pandemic of COVID-19, physicians face an imperative to use the drugs with unproven clinical efficacy and at best only moderate activity against SARS-CoV-2 (CQ and HCQ among them) in an attempt to save lives of patients with severe viral pneumonia complicated by acute respiratory distress syndrome. Several reports from China showed that both CQ and HCQ can block viral replication in vitro,2 3 whereas a small non-randomised trial from Gautret et al found HCQ to have a promising efficacy in enhancing viral clearance.4 These preliminary data resulted in a widespread use of antimalarials to treat COVID-19 and prompted US President Donald Trump to tout HCQ as ‘one of the biggest game-changers in the history of medicine’. However, recent evidence suggests that it might be not true. A small but randomised study from China in patients …

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    Footnotes

    • Contributors All authors participated in preparing the manuscript and provided their comments.

    • Funding The Russian Academic Excellence Project 5-100

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Patient and public involvement Patients and/or the public were not involved in the design, or conduct, or reporting, or dissemination plans of this research.

    • Patient consent for publication Not required.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; internally peer reviewed.

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