Potential of Arbidol for Post-exposure Prophylaxis of COVID-19 Transmission —A Preliminary Report of a Retrospective Cohort Study

SummaryThe efficient transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome-2 coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) from patients to health care workers or family members has been a worrisome and prominent feature of the ongoing outbreak. On the basis of clinical practice andin-vitro studies, we postulated that post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) using Arbidol is associated with decreased infection among individuals exposed to confirmed cases of COVID-19 infection. We conducted a retrospective cohort study on family members and health care workers who were exposed to patients confirmed to have SARS-CoV-2 infection by real-time RT-PCR and chest computed tomography (CT) from January 1 to January 16, 2020. The last follow-up date was Feb. 26, 2020. The emergence of fever and/or respiratory symptoms after exposure to the primary case was collected. The correlations between post-exposure prophylaxis and infection in household contacts and health care workers were respectively analyzed. A total of 66 members in 27 families and 124 health care workers had evidence of close exposure to patients with confirmed COVID-19. The Cox regression based on the data of the family members and health care workers with Arbidol or not showed that Arbidol PEP was a protective factor against the development of COVID-19 (HR 0.025, 95% CI 0.003 –0.209,P=0.0006 for family members and HR 0.056, 95% CI 0.005 –0.662,P=0.0221 for health care workers). Our findings suggest Arbidol could reduce the infection risk of the novel ...
Source: Journal of Huazhong University of Science and Technology -- Medical Sciences -- - Category: Research Source Type: research