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Case Report
A case of treatment failure of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin in a COVID-19 patient
1 Division of Critical Care Medicine, St. Joseph Health, Santa Rosa, California, USA
2 Division of Gastroenterology, St. Joseph Health, Santa Rosa, California, USA
Address correspondence to:
Albert Phan Nguyen
1165 Montgomery Drive, Santa Rosa, California 95405,
USA
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Article ID: 101135Z01AN2020
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Nguyen AP, Stephen FO. A case of treatment failure of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin in a COVID-19 patient. Int J Case Rep Images 2020;11:101135Z01AN2020.ABSTRACT
Introduction: The novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been responsible for the current global pandemic. Currently, there are no proven medical therapies to treat this disease. Despite the lack of rigorous clinical trials, a combination of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin has been a heavily promoted therapy.
Case Report: We report a case of a 74-year-old man with a history of type II diabetes mellitus and paroxysmal atrial fibrillation with initial mild respiratory symptoms and a confirmed diagnosis of COVID-19 by nasal swab. As an outpatient, the patient had completed a five day course of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin. On the sixth day the patient was hospitalized for worsening hypoxia and increased respiratory distress. The patient required mechanical ventilation and proning to treat his hypoxic respiratory failure due to COVID-19 and currently remains intubated 11 days after admission.
Conclusion: Hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin combination therapy failed to prevent the patient from manifesting severe symptoms of COVID-19. This case report of treatment failure is in line with two preliminary studies that have not found benefit of hydroxychloroquine in the treatment of this novel disease. This highlights the need for robust controlled clinical trials to assess efficacy of novel therapeutic agents before being proclaimed to the public.
Keywords: Azithromycin, COVID-19, Hydroxychloroquine, Novel therapy
SUPPORTING INFORMATION
Author Contributions
Albert Phan Nguyen - Substantial contributions to conception and design, Acquisition of data, Interpretation of data, Drafting the article, Revising it critically for important intellectual content, Final approval of the version to be published
F Otis Stephen - Substantial contributions to conception and design, Revising it critically for important intellectual content, Final approval of the version to be published
Guarantor of SubmissionThe corresponding author is the guarantor of submission.
Source of SupportNone
Consent StatementWritten informed consent was obtained from the patient for publication of this article.
Data AvailabilityAll relevant data are within the paper and its Supporting Information files.
Conflict of InterestAuthors declare no conflict of interest.
Copyright© 2020 Albert Phan Nguyen et al. This article is distributed under the terms of Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium provided the original author(s) and original publisher are properly credited. Please see the copyright policy on the journal website for more information.
