Doctors globally have rated hydroxychloroquine as the most effective therapy for the treatment of novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
Global healthcare polling company, Sermo disclosed this in a press release of a survey published in New York on Thursday.
The company said 6,227 doctors from 30 countries were involved in the study.
According to the study, hydroxychloroquine was overall chosen as the most effective therapy amongst COVID-19 treaters from a list of 15 options, with 37 per cent of doctors preferring it.
The next most effective was Azithromycin at 32 percent, followed by “nothing,” analgesics (including acetaminophen), anti-HIV drugs and cough medicine.
Already being used “off-label” in the treatment of COVID-19, the anti-malarial drug got Emergency Use Authorisation (EUA) from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Monday to be repurposed for treating COVID-19 cases.
The study further showed that the three most commonly prescribed treatments amongst COVID-19 treaters are 56% analgesics, 41% Azithromycin, and 33% hydroxychloroquine.
“Hydroxychloroquine usage amongst COVID-19 treaters is 72% in Spain, 49% in Italy, 41% in Brazil, 39% in Mexico, 28% in France, 23% in the U.S., 17% in Germany, 16% in Canada, 13% in the UK and 7% in Japan,” the release read in part.
It said that of the physicians that described hydroxychloroquine as the most effective therapy, 75% were in Spain, 53% in Italy, 44% in China, 43% in Brazil, 29% in France, 23% in the U.S. and 13% in the U.K.
The study found that the two most common treatment regimens for hydroxychloroquine were: 400mg twice daily on day one; 400 mg daily for five days (38%) and
400mg twice daily on day one; 200mg twice daily for four days (26%).
“Outside the U.S., Hydroxychloroquine was equally used for diagnosed patients with mild to severe symptoms whereas in the U.S. it was most commonly used for high risk diagnosed patients.
Globally, 19% of physicians prescribed or have seen Hydroxychloroquine prophylactically used for high risk patients, and 8% for low-risk patients,” the study found.
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