Chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine for prevention and treatment of COVID‐19

Background

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) pandemic has resulted in substantial mortality. Some specialists proposed chloroquine (CQ) and hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) for treating or preventing the disease. The efficacy and safety of these drugs have been assessed in randomized controlled trials.

Objectives

To evaluate the effects of chloroquine (CQ) or hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) for

1) treating people with COVID‐19 on death and time to clearance of the virus;

2) preventing infection in people at risk of SARS‐CoV‐2 exposure;

3) preventing infection in people exposed to SARS‐CoV‐2.

Search methods

We searched the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), MEDLINE, Embase, Current Controlled Trials (www.controlled‐trials.com), and the COVID‐19‐specific resources www.covid‐nma.com and covid‐19.cochrane.org, for studies of any publication status and in any language. We performed all searches up to 15 September 2020. We contacted researchers to identify unpublished and ongoing studies.

Selection criteria

We included randomized controlled trials (RCTs) testing chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine in people with COVID‐19, people at risk of COVID‐19 exposure, and people exposed to COVID‐19.

Adverse events (any, serious, and QT‐interval prolongation on electrocardiogram) were also extracted.

Data collection and analysis

Two review authors independently assessed eligibility of search results, extracted data from the included studies, and assessed risk of bias using the Cochrane ‘Risk of bias’ tool. We contacted study authors for clarification and additional data for some studies. We used risk ratios (RR) for dichotomous outcomes and mean differences (MD) for continuous outcomes, with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). We performed meta‐analysis using a random‐effects model for outcomes where pooling of effect estimates was appropriate.