• Faryal Khamis, Hanan Al Naabi, Adil Al Lawati, Zaiyana Ambusaidi, Mariam Al Sharji, Umkulthum Al Barwani, Nenad Pandak, Zakariya Al Balushi, Al BahraniMaherMDepartment of Anesthesia and Critical Care, Royal Hospital, Muscat, Oman. Electronic address: dr.mjalbahrani@gmail.com., Issa Al Salmi, and Ibrahim Al-Zakwani.
• Infection Diseases Unit, Department of Medicine, Royal Hospital, Muscat, Oman. Electronic address: khami001@gmail.com.
• Int. J. Infect. Dis. 2021 Jan 1; 102: 538-543.

ObjectiveTo evaluate the therapeutic effectiveness of favipiravir combined with inhaled interferon beta-1b in adult patients hospitalized with moderate to severe COVID-19 pneumonia.MethodsA randomized, open-label controlled trial of oral favipiravir in adults hospitalized with moderate to severe COVID-19 pneumonia from June 22nd 2020 to August 13th 2020 was conducted. Patients were randomly assigned to receive either a combination of favipiravir with interferon beta-1b by inhalation aerosol or hydroxychloroquine (HCQ). The outcome endpoints included improvement in inflammatory markers, lower length of hospital stay (LOS), discharges and lower overall 14-day mortality.ResultsA total of 89 patients underwent randomization with 49% (n = 44) assigned to favipiravir and 51% (n = 45) assigned HCQ. The overall mean age was 55 ± 14 years and 58% (n = 52) were males. There were no significant differences in the inflammatory biomarkers at hospital discharge between the two groups; C-reactive protein (p = 0.413), ferritin (p = 0.968), lactate dehydrogenase (p = 0.259) and interleukin 6 (p = 0.410). There were also no significant differences between the two groups with regards to the overall LOS (7 vs 7 days; p = 0.948), transfers to the ICU (18.2% vs 17.8%; p = 0.960), discharges (65.9% vs 68.9%; p = 0.764) and overall mortality (11.4% vs 13.3%; p = 0.778).ConclusionsNo differences in clinical outcomes were found between favipiravir plus inhaled interferon beta-1b and hydroxychloroquine in adults hospitalized with moderate to severe COVID-19 pneumonia.Copyright © 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

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