• Omer Gendelman, Howard Amital, Nicola Luigi Bragazzi, Abdulla Watad, and Gabriel Chodick.
• Department of Medicine 'B', Sheba Medical Center, Tel-Hashomer, Israel; Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel.
• Autoimmun Rev. 2020 Jul 1; 19 (7): 102566.

BackgroundSome disease-modifying agents commonly used to treat patients with rheumatic diseases/autoimmune disorders, such as hydroxychloroquine and colchicine, are under investigation as potential therapies for the "coronavirus disease 2019" (COVID-19). However, the role of such agents as prophylactic tools is still not clear.MethodsThis is a retrospective study based on a large healthcare computerized database including all patients that were screened for the "Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus type 2" (SARS-CoV-2) in the study period from February 23rd 2020 to March 31st 2020. A comparison was conducted between subjects tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 and those found negative in terms of rate of administration of hydroxychloroquine/colchicine therapy.ResultsAn overall sample of 14,520 subjects were screened for SARS-CoV-2 infection and 1317 resulted positive. No significant difference was found in terms of rates of usage of hydroxychloroquine or colchicine between those who were found positive for SARS-CoV-2 and those who were found negative (0.23% versus 0.25% for hydroxychloroquine, and 0.53% versus 0.48% for colchicine, respectively).ConclusionThese findings raise doubts regarding the protective role of these medications in the battle against SARS-CoV-2 infection.Copyright © 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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