The North Carolina Rheumatology Association (NCRA) strongly discourages the practice of hoarding or prescribing hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) as a precaution against COVID-19. Such hoarding and misuse of this medication is leading to shortages for patients with lupus and other diseases that depend on HCQ for treatment, not to mention for possible life-saving treatment of patients with actual COVID-19 in the hospital setting.
One small French study looking at patients with confirmed COVID-19 (Gautret et al. (2020) Hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin as a treatment of COVID‐19: results of an open‐label non‐randomized clinical trial. International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents – In Press 17 March 2020) is not sufficient evidence to take HCQ as prophylaxis. This study was very small with only 30 patients included (10 on placebo, 10 on HCQ alone and 10 on HCQ with azithromycin) and did not look at the use of any regimen for prophylaxis.
The American College of Rheumatology (ACR) is also helping with this at the Federal and state level. Please check out the link below for details:
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