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Malaysia’s HCQ – Before and After Study

Our data with 586 patients in stage 2 and stage 3. We were looking at patients with
mild disease to start hydroxychloroquine. These patients did not require oxygen. 451

were initiated on hydroxychloroquine regimen for at least 5 days. We compared them
with 135 historical controls without hydroxychloroquine.

This is because at that particular juncture, before national guidelines on
hydroxychloroquine were implemented, we were using only Kaletra for the 135 cases,

especially in Hospital Sungai Buloh and Hospital Permai in Johor Bahru.

We were hoping that the hydroxychloroquine arm would have prevented

deterioration. Our data showed the proportion of deterioration to the stage 4 and 5
was 10% for hydroxychloroquine and without hydroxychloroquine was 8.9%. They
were not statistically significant. Hydroxychloroquine doesn’t seem to prevent

deterioration to rapid disease.

We also adjusted for confounding factors to see if there was any difference in
results. Based on this data and the data from WHO Solidarity Study that's going to
come out, hydroxychloroquine is not going to make a difference. I think the

hydroxychloroquine era or in Malaysia may stop, and we will not be using
hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19 for the time being.