Hydroxychloroquine in patients with mainly mild to moderate coronavirus disease 2019: open label, randomised controlled trial
Coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), spread to most countries in the world within five months of initial reports in China. As of 22 April 2020, more than 2.5 million infections and 178 thousand deaths had been reported.1
Several drugs, including remdesivir, favipiravir, ribavirin, lopinavir-ritonavir (used in combination), and chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine, have been highlighted on the basis of promising in vitro results and therapeutic experiences from two other coronavirus diseases—severe acute respiratory syndrome and Middle East respiratory syndrome.2 However, none of these promising results has yet been translated into clinical benefits in patients with covid-19, with a failed trial of lopinavir-ritonavir being the most recently reported.3
