BACKGROUND: There are no effective therapies for patients with coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) METHODS: Forty-one patients with confirmed COVID-19 were enrolled in the study and divided into two groups: artemisinin-piperaquine (AP) (n = 23) and control (n = 18) The primary outcome were the time taken to reach undetectable levels of severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) and the percentage of participants with undetectable SARS-CoV-2 on days 7, 10, 14, and 28 The computed tomography (CT) imaging changes within 10 days, corrected QT interval changes, adverse events, and abnormal laboratory parameters were the secondary outcomes RESULTS: The mean time to reach undetectable viral RNA (mean +/- standard deviation) was 10 6 +/- 1 1 days (95% confidence interval [CI] 8 4-12 8) for the AP group and 19 3 +/- 2 1 days (95% CI 15 1-23 5) for the control group The percentages of patients with undetectable viral RNA on days 7, 10, 14, 21, and 28 were 26 1%, 43 5%, 78 3%, 100%, and 100%, respectively, in the AP group and 5 6%, 16 7%, 44 4%, 55 6%, and 72 2%, respectively, in the control group The CT imaging within 10 days post-treatment showed no significant between-group differences (P &gt; 0 05) Both groups had mild adverse events CONCLUSIONS: In patients with mild-to-moderate COVID-19, the time to reach undetectable SARS-CoV-2 was significantly shorter in the AP group than that in the control group However, physicians should consider QT interval changes before using AP
Safety and efficacy of artemisinin-piperaquine for treatment of COVID-19: an open-label, non-randomised and controlled trial