There have been many threads pushing hydroxychloroquine with and without azithromycin. This combination has been touted by many here and by some elsewhere as having been proven. I have participated in the TOTV threads cautioning that the data are not clear and more studies are being done.
One is now ready for publication. Like the one that started it all, this is from France. It looked at 11 patients in Paris to attempt to replicate the earlier study where it was claimed that 6 of 6 patients given the combination had no virus detected after 6 days from the start of therapy. Exactly the same drugs and doses were used.
Quote:
At the time of treatment initiation, 10/11 had fever and received nasal oxygen therapy. Within 5 days, one patient died, two were transferred to the ICU. In one patient, hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin were discontinued after 4 days because of a prolongation of the QT interval from 405 ms before treatment to 460 and 470 ms under the combination. Mean through blood concentration of hydroxychloroquine was 678 ng/mL (range: 381-891) at days 3-7 after treatment initiation.
Repeated nasopharyngeal swabs in 10 patients (not done in the patient who died) using a qualitative PCR assay.. were still positive for SARS-CoV2 RNA in 8/10 patients (80%, 95% confidence interval: 49-94) at days 5 to 6 after treatment initiation.
|
Keep in mind that in the early study 12% of non-treated patients cleared their virus. Here 20% of treated cleared and 80% failed.
The authors' conclusion:
Quote:
|
In summary, despite a reported antiviral activity of chloroquine against COVID-19 in vitro, we found no evidence of a strong antiviral activity or clinical benefit of the combination of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin for the treatment of our hospitalized patients with severe COVID-19.
|
This is how science works. Someone tests a hypothesis and makes their results public. Others then attempt to replicate those findings. After enough different scientists have tested the suggestion a consensus will be reached if the data holds up to scrutiny. It is too early to know which way this is going to go, but 100% efficacy as was claimed now seems in doubt, unfortunately.
Also note that 1 of 11 had to have the medication stopped because of unexpected cardiac changes putting him or her at risk for sudden death after just a few doses. These medications are not without risk.