Three Brazilian scientific entities came to a consensus and recommend not using hydroxychloroquine, chloroquine, and their associations with azithromycin in the Covid-19 treatment routine.
The recommendation is in a document with guidelines from the Brazilian Association of Intensive Care Medicine, the Brazilian Society of Infectious Diseases, and the Brazilian Society of Pulmonology and Tisiology.
The evidence for the use of chloroquine and its derivative is weak, according to a group of 27 specialists, including infectologists, specialists in intensive care medicine, pulmonologists, pharmacists, epidemiologists, and public health specialists. They reviewed the studies available so far about possible therapies against Covid-19.
The researchers took into account two randomized clinical trials (type of study with the most robust evidence on the effectiveness or not of a drug) that are open in patients with mild to moderate disease and a cohort study, considering the data available so far.
According to scientific entities, "the available evidence does not suggest a clinically significant benefit from treatment with hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine". The same goes for the use of the combination of hydroxychloroquine (or chloroquine) with azithromycin.
Translated by Kiratiana Freelon