Hydroxychloroquine Rated ‘Most Effective Therapy’ for CCP Virus by Doctors in Global Survey

Hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine tablets are shown in at the IHU Mediterranee Infection Institute in Marseille, France, on Feb. 26, 2020. Gerard Julien/AFP via Getty Images

A drug used around the world to treat malaria has been rated the “most effective therapy” in treating CCP virus patients, according to a new survey.

Sermo, a healthcare polling company, asked 6,227 physicians across 30 countries which therapy they'd list as the most effective. More than one out of three, or 37 percent, chose hydroxychloroquine.

The most commonly prescribed treatment given to patients with COVID-19, the disease the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus causes, was analgesics, followed by azithromycin and hydroxychloroquine.

“This survey of frontline doctors shows the value of critical information sharing between countries. That is the only way that a new insight from one country can rapidly save lives around the world,” Dr. Murali Doraiswamy, professor of psychiatry and medicine at Duke University School of Medicine and a scientific adviser to Sermo, said in a statement.

Two preprint French studies have shown hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin, an antibiotic, are effective in treating COVID-19 patients. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration says both hydroxychloroquine and the closely-related chloroquine can be used to treat COVID-19 patients under an emergency use authorization.

Doctors from France meet in front of room where a COVID-19 patient from France is being treated at the University Hospital in Essen, Germany, on April 1, 2020. Marcel Kusch/dpa via AP

India, Hungary, and the United Kingdom have banned export of hydroxychloroquine while doctors in a number of countries, including France and Bahrain, were known to be prescribing the drug.

Hydroxychloroquine usage was most prominent in Spain, followed by Italy, Brazil, Mexico, France, the United States, Germany, and Canada, according to the global survey.

American doctors mostly prescribed hydroxychloroquine to high-risk patients, while outside the United States the drug was used equally for patients with mild to severe symptoms.

The most common treatment regimens both included 400 milligrams twice daily on day one, but some doctors then went to 400 milligrams daily for five days while others prescribed 200 milligrams twice daily for four days.

The survey contained “a treasure trove of global insights for policy makers,” Sermo CEO Peter Kirk said.

“Physicians should have more of a voice in how we deal with this pandemic and be able to quickly share information with one another and the world,” he added. “With censorship of the media and the medical community in some countries, along with biased and poorly designed studies, solutions to the pandemic are being delayed. We invite global physicians to contribute to help inform policy makers, their colleagues, and the public.”