Safety and Efficacy of Chloroquine/Hydroxychloroquine in SARS-CoV-2 Infection

Abstract

This work summarizes the available evidence of the use of chloroquine/hydroxychloroquine (CQ/HCQ)\nin SARS-CoV-2 infection. Most of the published works indicate CQ/HCQ is likely effective against\nSARS-CoV-2 infection, almost 100% in prophylaxis and mild-medium severity cases and 60% in late\ninfection cases. The percentage of positive works is larger if those works conducted under a probable\nconflict of interest are excluded from the list. Despite this overwhelming evidence from independent\nstudies, the use of CQ/HCQ is currently limited or prevented in many western countries, based on a\nvery singular examination of the science. The case of a work published in late May 2020, despite\nbeing openly defective and then retracted, prompted the World Health Organization (WHO) to ban the\nuse of CQ/HCQ. This position has not yet rectified, thanks to the results of the not less questionable\nRECOVERY trial, where very sick patients were administered more than double the dose, over more\nthan double the time, recommended for asymptomatic patients in current protocols of other countries,\nwhere CQ/HCQ are used for asymptomatic and mild but not severe pneumonia critically ill patients.\nWhile the case fatality rate does not depend only on therapies, it is finally shown based on the number\nof cases and fatalities per million and the case fatality rate as the western countries enforcing the ban\non CQ/HCQ did not perform better, but much worse, than other countries, also because of therapies.