Despite its failure to pass through the WHO clinical mill, hydroxychloroquine has been found to help Covid-19 patients rejoin their families early.

Ghanaian researchers have concluded a study that has shown that patients administered with hydroxychloroquine had a shorter hospital stay as compared to supportive therapy.

“Those who were put on supportive therapy like vitamin C also got well but those on hydroxychloroquine got well earlier,” lead researcher at the Ghana Health Service, Dr. Mary Eyram Ashinyo explained.

The study published in the Pan African Medical Journal sought to find the clinical characteristics, treatment regimen and duration of hospitalization among COVID-19 patients in Ghana.

The study examined 307 patient records and found that the average age and temperature of these patients were 37.9 years and 36.3°C, respectively.

According to the report, 85.7 percent of the cases reviewed did not show symptoms; for those showing symptoms, the main ones were cough followed by fever.

Headache was third and sore throat in the fourth place.

25.1 percent of the patients had more than one or more diseases; hypertension was the most reported at 71.4 percent, asthma, 7.8 percent and diabetes at 6.5 percent.

While the average duration of hospitalization for all patients in this study was 13.8 days, patients on supportive therapy spent as much as 16 days on admission.

The duration of hospitalization for patients managed with azithromycin and chloroquine was 10.4 days, followed closely by those managed with hydroxychloroquine only, 11 days.

There was longer duration of hospitalization among patients who received Azithromycin only.
“This supports the recommendation in the provisional Ghana Standard Treatment Guidelines that if not contraindicated, hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine should be used efficiently alone or in combination with Azithromycine to optimize the management of asymptomatic and mild cases of covid-19,” the report said.