Exsurge Domine said:
gigemJTH12 said:
If this is true...how quickly can it be over? How much of that stuff do we have?
It's a peer reviewed paper showing 100% efficacy in 40 patients. Seems like a big deal. I don't know about HCQ but I think azithromyacin is just a z-pack which is pretty common. I think HCQ is plaquenil which is common as well
Unfortunately we cannot make any inferences based on this study given that it was non-randomized and had such low numbers. Azithromycin was added if the treating physician thought necessary; however, this would imply that there was a functional difference in clinical presentation in patients that received azithromycin. This possibly means that patients that received it were further along in their disease course which could also explain why they had quicker clearance of viral load. It could also mean that those that were more symptomatic had a greater immune response which might have lead to quicker viral load clearance, as well. It is impossible to tell without randomization.
While HCQ therapy is promising, it should not be promoted as a cure until efficacy can be determined. I would hate for all my SLE and RA patients to be out of their clinically proven medication due to a shortage based on in vitro studies and unpublished, non-randomized trials.
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