COVID-19 pharmacological treatment at the Udayana University Hospital in april-may 2020

Abstract

Since the COVID-19 pandemic in Indonesia, pharmacological therapy for COVID-19 cases to date arecurrently based on clinician's assessments of drugs, or what drug combinationsmight work in managingCOVID-19 cases, and not yet based on empirical evidence from clinical trial studies, which also limited available in the early of pandemic. This study aims to provide data on drugs utilized during the treatment of the COVID-19 cases and the rationalization of their use. This research is a cross-sectional descriptive study conducted at the Udayana University Hospital in April-May 2020. Demographic and treatment data were obtained through inpatient medical records, and research sample was selected by total sampling method. 95 cases of COVID-19 hospitalized during April-May 2020 were included in the study. The standard COVID- 19 drugs given were vitamin C (100%), chloroquine phosphate (61.1%), azithromycin (34.7%) or levofloxacin (5.3%), and oseltamivir (37.9%) or lopinavir-ritonavir (3.2%). Other drugs given were low molecular weight heparin (2.1%), alprazolam (1.1%), amlodipine (3.2%), clobazam (9.5%), meropenem (2.1%), and metformin (3.2%). Administration of high doses intravenous vitamin C was found to be beneficial, while chloroquine phosphate, antibiotics, and antivirals need to be reconsidered based on theirrisks and benefits in COVID-19 management.