Observational studyTravel medicine and infectious disease
Clinical and microbiological effect of a combination of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin in 80 COVID-19 patients with at least a six-day follow up: A pilot observational study.
Observational study in Travel medicine and infectious disease. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to 2 registered trials, which are not on this map. Cited by 390 papers, 13 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Comparative Efficacy of Various Doses of Hydroxychloroquine in Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis for COVID 19 in Healthcare Personnel
The Zambia Ivermectin Trial for the Treatment and Prevention of COVID-19
Who cites it
390 citing papers in PubMed, 13 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 781 citations in OpenAlex.
- A metaresearch study revealed susceptibility of Covid-19 treatment research to white hat bias: first, do no harm.Journal of clinical epidemiology · 2021Pooled it
- The efficacy and safety of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) in treatment of COVID19 -a systematic review and meta-analysis.Indian journal of medical microbiology · 2021Pooled it
- Hydroxychloroquine use and progression or prognosis of COVID-19: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Naunyn-Schmiedeberg's archives of pharmacology · 2021Pooled it
- Hydroxychloroquine for treatment of nonsevere COVID-19 patients: Systematic review and meta-analysis of controlled clinical trials.Journal of medical virology · 2021Pooled it
- From hydroxychloroquine to ivermectin: what are the anti-viral properties of anti-parasitic drugs to combat SARS-CoV-2?Journal of travel medicine · 2021Pooled it
- Chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine for prevention and treatment of COVID-19.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2021Pooled it
- Methodological quality of COVID-19 clinical research.Nature communications · 2021Pooled it
- Systematic review and meta-analysis of the effectiveness and safety of hydroxychloroquine in treating COVID-19 patients.Journal of the Chinese Medical Association : JCMA · 2021Pooled it
- Incidence and treatment of arrhythmias secondary to coronavirus infection in humans: A systematic review.European journal of clinical investigation · 2021Pooled it
- Systematic review and meta-analysis of effectiveness of treatment options against SARS-CoV-2 infection.Journal of medical virology · 2021Pooled it
- Antirheumatic Disease Therapies for the Treatment of COVID-19: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Arthritis & rheumatology (Hoboken, N.J.) · 2021Pooled it
- The efficacy and safety of hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19 prophylaxis: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized trials.PloS one · 2021Pooled it
- A systematic review and meta-analysis on chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine as monotherapy or combined with azithromycin in COVID-19 treatment.Scientific reports · 2020Pooled it
- Randomized controlled trial of favipiravir, hydroxychloroquine, and standard care in patients with mild/moderate COVID-19 disease.Scientific reports · 2022Trial
- Azithromycin for community treatment of suspected COVID-19 in people at increased risk of an adverse clinical course in the UK (PRINCIPLE): a randomised, controlled, open-label, adaptive platform trial.Lancet (London, England) · 2021Trial
- Follow-up investigation of ethics approvals and regulatory compliance in publications from the IHU-Mi.Research integrity and peer review · 2026Article
- Home care for patients with COVID-19: Niger's experience; about 2037 cases in the city of Niamey.IJID regions · 2026Article
- From Widespread Use to Loss of Effectiveness: The Consequences of Inappropriate Azithromycin Prescriptions During the COVID-19 Pandemic-A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.International journal of microbiology · 2026Review
- Trends in 'Watch' and 'Reserve' Antibiotic Use in Primary Care in Kazakhstan: The Imperative for Enhancing Stewardship Strategies.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Article
330 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
29 authors at 6 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundWe need an effective treatment to cure COVID-19 patients and to decrease virus carriage duration.
methodsWe conducted an uncontrolled, non-comparative, observational study in a cohort of 80 relatively mildly infected inpatients treated with a combination of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin over a period of at least three days, with three main measurements: clinical outcome, contagiousness as assessed by PCR and culture, and length of stay in infectious disease unit (IDU).
resultsAll patients improved clinically except one 86 year-old patient who died, and one 74 year-old patient still in intensive care. A rapid fall of nasopharyngeal viral load was noted, with 83% negative at Day7, and 93% at Day8. Virus cultures from patient respiratory samples were negative in 97.5% of patients at Day5. Consequently patients were able to be rapidly discharged from IDU with a mean length of stay of five days.
conclusionWe believe there is urgency to evaluate the effectiveness of this potentially-life saving therapeutic strategy at a larger scale, both to treat and cure patients at an early stage before irreversible severe respiratory complications take hold and to decrease duration of carriage and avoid the spread of the disease. Furthermore, the cost of treatment is negligible.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.