USAGE OF HYDROXYCHLOROQUINE CHEMOPROPHYLAXIS AMONG CLINICIANS IN A TERTIARY CARE TEACHING HOSPITAL– A DESCRIPTIVE STUDY
Main Article Content
Keywords
COVID 19, Hydroxychloroquine, chemoprophylaxis.
Abstract
Background: Covid pandemic took a heavy toll on millions of lives across the globe. Initially, no effective vaccines were available against this disease. WHO had advocated the use of Hydroxychloroquine as a chemoprophylactic agent for health care workers during those initial few months of COVID pandemic. But there were many concerns and confusions regarding safety of HCQ chemoprophylaxis even among clinicians.
Methods: The current questionnaire based cross sectional study was conducted among 57 clinicians of Government T.D. Medical College, Alappuzha for a period of three months from October 2020 - December 2020 after getting ethical committee clearance.
Results: Among the 57 participants, only 6 participants had taken HCQ for chemoprophylaxis. None of the subjects on HCQ chemoprophylaxis developed any symptoms suggestive of COVID while they were on drug. All the subjects stated self - motivation as the reason behind starting chemoprophylaxis. None of the subjects developed any apparent side effects suggestive of chemoprophylaxis therapy. When enquired ‘fear about cardiac complication’ was the most common reason stated for not taking HCQ chemoprophylaxis (41.2%). Remaining participants stated other reasons like, unsure of effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine as chemoprophylactic agent, unawareness regarding HCQ chemoprophylaxis, contraindication for hydroxychloroquine and unavailability of drug, for not taking HCQ chemoprophylaxis.
Conclusion: Drugs with known dangerous complications are less likely to be consumed even if side effects are not so common. Properly addressing concerns of the consumers can have a huge impact on the success of chemoprophylaxis.
References
2. Shi H, Zhou C, He P, et al. Successful Treatment of Plasma Exchange Followed by Intravenous Immunogloblin in a Critically Ill Patient With 2019 Novel Coronavirus Infection. Int J Antimicrob Agents. 2020 Apr 13; 105974
3. Manli Wang, Ruiyuan Cao, Leike Zhang, Xinglou Yang, Jia Liu, Mingyue Xu, Zhengli Shi, Zhihong Hu , Wu Zhong and Gengfu Xiao. Remdesivir and chloroquine effectively inhibit the recently emerged novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) Cell Research (2020) 30:269–271; https://doi.org/10.1038/s41422-020-0282-0
4. Wan Y, Shang J, Graham R, Baric RS, Li F (2020) Receptor recognition by novel coronavirus from Wuhan: an analysis based on decade-long structural studies of SARS. J Virol. https://doi.org/10.1128/jvi.00127 -20
5. J Liu, S Li, J Liu. et al. Longitudinal characteristics of lymphocyte responses and cytokine profiles in the peripheral blood of SARS-CoV-2 infected patients. medRxiv 2020.02.16.20023671; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.02.16.20023671.
6. Mahevas M., Tran V-T, Roumier M, et al. No evidence of clinical efficacy of hydroxychloroquine in patients hospitalized for COVID-19 infection with oxygen requirement: results of a study using routinely collected data to emulate a target trial. medRxiv. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.04.10.20060699 [Last accessed April 15, 2020].
7. Chen Z, Hi J, Zhang Z, et al. Efficacy of hydroxychloroquine in patients with COVID-19: results of a randomized clinical trial. medRxiv. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.03.22. 20040758 [accessed 15 April 2020].
8. Ahluwalia, J., Brooks, S.K., Weinman, J. et al. A systematic review of factors affecting adherence to malaria chemoprophylaxis amongst travellers from non-endemic countries. Malar J 19, 16 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12936-020-3104-4
Article Sidebar
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
All articles published in JPTCP are licensed under Copyright Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Dr. Sneha S. Nair
Assistant Professor, Department of Physiology, Government T. D. Medical College, Vandanam, Alappuzha, Kerala, India.
Dr. Rose Davy Chakkola
Retired Associate Professor, Department of Physiology, Government T.D. Medical College, Alappuzha, Kerala, India.