Chloroquine diphosphate in two different dosages as adjunctive therapy of hospitalized patients with severe respiratory syndrome in the context of coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) infection: Preliminary safety results of a randomized, double-blinded, phase IIb clinical trial (CloroCovid-19 Study)

Mayla Borba; Fernando de Almeida Val; Vanderson Sousa Sampaio; Marcia Araujo Alexandre; Gisely Cardoso Melo; Marcelo Brito; Maria Mourao; Jose Diego Brito Sousa; djane Baia-da-Silva; Marcus Vinitius Farias Guerra; Ludhmila Hajjar; Rosemary Costa Pinto; Antonio Balieiro; Felipe Gomes Naveca; Mariana Xavier; Alexandre Salomao; Andre Siqueira; Alexandre Schwarzbolt; Julio Henrique Rosa Croda; Mauricio Lacerda Nogueira; Gustavo Romero; Quique Bassat; Cor Jesus Fontes; Bernardino Albuquerque; Claudio Daniel-Ribeiro; Wuelton Monteiro; Marcus Lacerda

SARS-CoV-2 infection appears to cause a wide range of symptoms, encompassing asymptomatic infection, mild infections of the upper respiratory tract, severe viral pneumonia, respiratory failure, multiple organ failure and more deaths than previously expected 11 . Some studies have shown detailed clinical features of patients with SARS-CoV-2-associated viral pneumonia (SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia) 12 . Of laboratory confirmed patients in China, 5% had critical illnesses and almost 50% of the critical patients died, with an overall rate of fatal cases (2.3%) estimated to be about ten-fold higher than that observed for seasonal influenza 13 . Most deaths involved older adults, many of whom had underlying chronic diseases 14, 15 . In prolonged use (months or even years), which is not the targeted scenario in COVID-19, CQ may deposit in many tissues, especially the eye, causing retinal toxicity 23, 24 . Myopathy has also been associated with the use of CQ 25 . The major complication, even in short regimens, is the potential for QTc prolongation, favoring fatal arrhythmias such as ventricular tachycardia and torsades de pointes 26 . is the author/funder, who has granted medRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity.