Treatment with hydroxychloroquine vs nitazoxanide in patients with COVID-19. Brief report

Abstract

Introduction: coronavirus pandemic has led to 1.8 million deaths worldwide as of May 1st, 2021. Nitazoxanide (NTZ) is currently being studied in several ambulatory clinical trials to control viral infections including SARS-CoV-2. This study evaluates the effect of treatment with NTZ compared to Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) in hospitalized patients. Methods: in this clinical study performed from May to August 2020, two groups of COVID-19 patients were compared: A) a control group treated with HCQ 200 mg PO twice a day for seven days and B) an experimental group treated with NTZ 500 mg PO every 6 hours for seven days. Student's t-test between the two groups and Relative Risk (RR) with a 95% confidence interval (CI), were calculated. In all cases a P<0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: twenty-seven (27) patients (females 17, males 10) treated with HCQ and 17 patients (females 8, males 9) administered NTZ were included in the study (mean age 44.6 ± 14.4 years old). At the moment of hospital admission, the following variables were statistically significant: BMI (P=0.0225) and leucocyte counts (P=0.069). In the follow-up period, the statistically significant variables were hospital length of stay (P=0.003257) and Intensive Care Units (ICU) admission with a lower RR in the group taking NTZ vs HCQ of 0.4074 (95% CI: 0.2451 to 0.5927, attributable risk (P1 - P2): 0.5926, P≤0.0001, NNT: 1.688). Conclusion: in comparison to HCQ, NTZ significantly reduces the risk to be hospitalized in the ICU and this approach could be replicated easily in any hospital.