(also posted on politics board HCL thread, sorry if you see this twice)
big, big study looking at history in RA patients, comparing HCL with sulfasalazine, and compares HCL with azithromycin vs HCL and amoxicillin.
Overall 956,374 sample checked
310,350 HCL vs sulfasalazine
323,112 HCL + azithromycin
351,956 HCL + amoxicillin
Good news is in one month dosage, HCL looks to be safe. No excess risk of severe adverse events in 30 day usage.
Bad news is HCL + azithromycin has an increased risk of 30 day cardiovascular mortality, chest pain, and heart failure.
From the paper:
Quote:
Despite a lack of evidence on efficacy, HCQ and HCQ+AZM have become the most popular treatment/s for COVID-19. This is the largest ever analysis of the safety of such treatments worldwide, examining over 900,000 HCQ and more than 300,000 HCQ+AZM users respectively.
The results on the risk of SAEs associated with short-term (1 month) HCQ treatment as proposed for COVID-19 therapy are reassuring, with no excess risk of any of the considered safety outcomes compared to an equivalent therapy (SSZ). However, long-term treatment with HCQ as used for RA is associated with a 65% increase in cardiovascular mortality.
Worryingly, significant risks are identified for combination users of HCQ+AZM even in the short-term as proposed for COVID19 management, with a 15-20% increased risk of angina/chest pain and heart failure, and a two-fold risk of cardiovascular mortality in the first month of treatment.
I didn't know HCL reduced viral load vs placebo in HIV patients or improved resopnse vs Hepatitis C, in addition to being an IL6 inhibitor. Very versatile drug.