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      Current evidence on chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine and their role in the treatment and prevention of COVID-19

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            Abstract

            Although chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine have not yet been shown to be safe or effective for the treatment or prevention of COVID-19, regulatory agencies in some countries have authorised their use in Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) due to the lack of available interventions. Several large clinical trials are currently underway to investigate these agents as potential therapeutic options for COVID-19. Previous research against similar pathogens that cause severe acute respiratory syndrome and Middle East respiratory syndrome has identified chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine as possible antiviral candidates against SARS-CoV-2. Despite promising pre-clinical evidence, data have thus far failed to confirm their efficacy, and recent studies suggest potential dose-related cardiotoxicity and mortality. Close monitoring for cardiac conduction abnormalities is advised with higher-than-approved doses. Additional, robust evidence from randomised controlled trials and meta-analyses are required to make informed risk-benefit assessments. Finally, the off-label prescription of these agents should be judiciously considered, and any such use should be conducted within clinical trials, or under the Monitored Emergency Use of Unregistered and Investigational Interventions framework.

            Content

            Author and article information

            Journal
            AfricArXiv Preprints
            ScienceOpen
            15 July 2020
            Affiliations
            [1 ] University of Cape Town, Department of Medicine, Division of Clinical Pharmacology
            Author information
            https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4732-5879
            https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0757-5259
            https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1892-4207
            https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5547-820X
            Article
            10.14293/111.000/000008.v3
            627b6290-7812-4854-9dfd-5da29aa52c45

            This work has been published open access under Creative Commons Attribution License CC BY 4.0 , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Conditions, terms of use and publishing policy can be found at www.scienceopen.com .

            History
            : 15 July 2020
            Funding
            None Not applicable

            Data sharing not applicable to this article as no datasets were generated or analysed during the current study.
            Medicine,Pharmacology & Pharmaceutical medicine,Infectious disease & Microbiology
            COVID-19,chloroquine,hydroxychloroquine,SARS-CoV-2,MEURI,coronavirus

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