Journal of Vaccines & Vaccination

No Role of HCQ in COVID-19 Prophylaxis: A Survey amongst Indian Doctors

Debasis Datta¹, Samit Ghosal^2*, Binayak Sinha³, Sujata Datta⁴, Twisha Chakraborty⁵, Kalyan Kumar Gangopadhyay⁶ and Arup Ratan Dutta^{7 1}Department of Gastroenterology, Fortis Hospitals, Kolkata, India
²Department of Endocrinology, Nightingale Hospital, Kolkata, India
³Department of Diabetes and Endocrinology, AMRI Hospitals, Kolkata, India
⁴Department of Gynecology, Peerless Hospitals, Kolkata, India
⁵Department of Gastroenterology, Fortis Hospitals, Kolkata, India
⁶Department of Endocrinology, Peerless Hospitals, Kolkata, India
⁷Department of Nephrology, Fortis Hospitals, Kolkata, India
^*Correspondence: Samit Ghosal, Department of Endocrinology, Nightingale Hospital, Kolkata, India, Tel: 919674328281, Email:

Received: 15-Oct-2020 Published: 06-Nov-2020, DOI: 10.35248/2157-7560.20.S6.002

Introduction

Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), a drug traditionally used to treat malaria and rheumatoid disorders has been proposed as a prophylaxis for SARS-COV-2 infection, in view of its anti-viral properties in vitro. The Indian Council of Medical Research announced advisories recommending the prophylactic use of HCQ for all asymptomatic healthcare workers [1]. Though many Indian Healthcare Professionals (HCP) regarded this advisory as useful, many HCP were apprehensive not only about the lack of evidence indicating its beneficial role in prophylaxis of SARS-COV-2 infection but also about the side effects of HCQ, particularly cardiac as cautioned by the US FDA [2]. In light of recent randomised trials and meta-analysis failing to document any positive impact of HCQ on SARS-COV-2 infection and related outcomes both as preand post-exposure strategy , a real-life data on health-care providers would help complement the existing database [3-7].

Objective

We conducted a pilot study of Indian doctors to try and assess the benefit of HCQ in COVID 19 prophylaxis.

Methods and Findings

After ethical committee approval, a survey questionnaire was sent to 300 doctors working in five tertiary care hospitals in Kolkata, India treating both COVID and non-COVID patients regarding HCQ prophylaxis and its effect if any on the incidence of COVID infection amongst them.

Data was entered into an excel sheet and then converted to a Comma Separated Values (CSV) format prior to analysis. Analysis was performed using python 3.8.6 software (Windows 10 64 bit, USA). A total of 281 responses were obtained of whom 146 physicians (51.96%) were on HCQ prophylaxis, while 135 (48.04%) were not.

The risk of contracting COVID-19 was significantly higher amongst doctors from medical specialties compared to those from non-medical specialties (p<0.001, level of significance (α) =0.95). HCQ prophylaxis was not associated with a reduction in the risk of contracting COVID-19 (p=0.54); lebel of significance (α) =0.95). Duration of HCQ prophylaxis had no impact in preventing COVID infection (Table 1).

Table 1: Physicians on HCQ Prophylaxis.

Discussion and Conclusion

This unique pilot study of Indian doctors provides a strong indication that HCQ has no role in COVID 19 prophylaxis. This is a call to all physicians who are unfortunately lulled into a false sense of security by using HCQ, that until robust scientific data becomes available, they should put their faith on non-pharmaceutical prophylaxis for COVID 19.

The incidence of COVID 19 was higher in medical specialties as surgical specialties had less exposure to infected patients due to cancellation of routine surgeries. However larger studies are required amongst HCP deployed in COVID and non COVID areas. As of now the available data as well as recommendations from CDC do not support the use of HCQ as a pre-exposure prophylaxis for COVID-19.

Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge Mr. Milan Majumdar for helping us with the statistical analysis. In addition, we would like to thank all the physicians who took out their valuable time to fill up the survey.

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