ArticleEClinicalMedicine2020
Randomized double-blinded placebo-controlled trial of hydroxychloroquine with or without azithromycin for virologic cure of non-severe Covid-19.
Article in EClinicalMedicine, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 42 papers, 14 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
42 citing papers in PubMed, 14 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 72 citations in OpenAlex.
- Drug treatments for mild or moderate covid-19: systematic review and network meta-analysis.BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2025Pooled it
- Hydroxychloroquine-Chloroquine, QT-Prolongation, and Major Adverse Cardiac Events: A Meta-analysis and Scoping Review.The Annals of pharmacotherapy · 2024Pooled it
- Pan-American Guidelines for the treatment of SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19: a joint evidence-based guideline of the Brazilian Society of Infectious Diseases (SBI) and the Pan-American Association of Infectious Diseases (API).Annals of clinical microbiology and antimicrobials · 2023Guideline
- Hydroxychloroquine for Non-Hospitalized COVID-19 Patients: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Clinical Trials.Arquivos brasileiros de cardiologia · 2023Pooled it
- Newly Emerged Antiviral Strategies for SARS-CoV-2: From Deciphering Viral Protein Structural Function to the Development of Vaccines, Antibodies, and Small Molecules.International journal of molecular sciences · 2022Pooled it
- Hydroxychloroquine in the treatment of coronavirus disease 2019: Rapid updated systematic review and meta-analysis.Reviews in medical virology · 2022Pooled it
- Efficacy of antiviral therapies for COVID-19: a systematic review of randomized controlled trials.BMC infectious diseases · 2022Pooled it
- Efficacy and safety of azithromycin in Covid-19 patients: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials.Reviews in medical virology · 2022Pooled it
- Systematic review and meta-analysis of the safety of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine from randomized controlled trials on malarial and non-malarial conditions.Systematic reviews · 2021Pooled it
- Antibiotics for the treatment of COVID-19.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2021Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Immunomodulatory therapies for SARS-CoV-2 infection: a systematic literature review to inform EULAR points to consider.Annals of the rheumatic diseases · 2021Pooled it
- Use of hydroxychloroquine to prevent SARS-CoV-2 infection and treat mild COVID-19: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Jornal brasileiro de pneumologia : publicacao oficial da Sociedade Brasileira de Pneumologia e Tisilogia · 2021Pooled it
- Efficacy of COVID-19 Treatments: A Bayesian Network Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials.Frontiers in public health · 2021Pooled it
- The PRINCIPLE randomised controlled open label platform trial of hydroxychloroquine for treating COVID19 in community based patients at high risk.Scientific reports · 2025Trial
- Safety and efficacy of hydroxychloroquine for treatment of non-severe COVID-19 among adults in Uganda: a randomized open label phase II clinical trial.BMC infectious diseases · 2021Trial
- Azithromycin in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 (RECOVERY): a randomised, controlled, open-label, platform trial.Lancet (London, England) · 2021Trial
- Evaluating the Accuracy of Large Language Models in Risk-of-Bias Assessment Using Version 2 of the Cochrane Risk-of-Bias Tool for Randomized Trials: Exploratory Feasibility Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2026Article
- Drug repositioning in the COVID-19 pandemic: fundamentals, synthetic routes, and overview of clinical studies.European journal of clinical pharmacology · 2023Review
- Recent advances of nanotechnology in COVID 19: A critical review and future perspective.OpenNano · 2023Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
19 authors at 6 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundHydroxychloroquine (HC) ± azithromycin (AZ) is widely used for Covid-19. The Qatar Prospective RCT of Expediting Coronavirus Tapering (Q-PROTECT) aimed to assess virologic cure rates of HC±AZ in cases of low-acuity Covid-19.
methodsQ-PROTECT employed a prospective, placebo-controlled design with blinded randomization to three parallel arms: placebo, oral HC (600 mg daily for one week), or oral HC plus oral AZ (500 mg day one, 250 mg daily on days two through five). At enrollment, non-hospitalized participants had mild or no symptoms and were within a day of Covid-19 positivity by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). After six days, intent-to-treat (ITT) analysis of the primary endpoint of virologic cure was assessed using binomial exact 95% confidence intervals (CIs) and χ
findingsThe study enrolled 456 participants (152 in each of three groups: HC+AZ, HC, placebo) between 13 April and 1 August 2020. HC+AZ, HC, and placebo groups had 6 (3·9%), 7 (4·6%), and 9 (5·9%) participants go off study medications before completing the medication course (
interpretationHC±AZ does not facilitate virologic cure in patients with mild or asymptomatic Covid-19.
fundingThe study was supported by internal institutional funds of the Hamad Medical Corporation (government health service of the State of Qatar).
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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.