Efficacy of oseltamivir in the treatment of patients infected with Covid-19.

Objective: The recent unprecedented pandemic caused by Sars-Cov-2 (the new coronavirus 2019), is threatening public health around the world. Although several studies have been performed, there is no identified treatment for Covid-19 patients. Here we assessed the efficacy of oseltamivir in combination therapy, by comparing two different therapeutic regimens in hospitalized patients, in improving outcomes and find better treatment for Covid-19 patients.

Methods: This is a single-center retrospective cohort study of 285 confirmed Covid-19 in patients at (XXX). Depending on the date of admission, the patients were divided into two groups; group 1 (oseltamivir group) from February 20, 2020 to March 15, 2020 received Oseltamivir with routine regimen and group 2 (control group) from March 20, 2020 to April 20, 2020 received routine regimen alone that included Azithromycin 500 mg/day and Hydroxychloroquine 200 mg/12 h.Endpoints including duration of hospitalization, requirement to admission to intensive care unit (ICU) and mechanical ventilation, outcome and mortality rate.

Results: A total of 285 patients were enrolled in the two months, 120 patients for group 1 and 165 for group 2. The median time from admission to discharge was significantly shorter in the oseltamivir group compared to the control group (4.9 vs 6.6 days, p < 0.001). Additionally, the mortality rate was found to be lower in the oseltamivir group than in the control group (1.7% vs 6,7%, p = 0.06) which was statistically significant by multivariate analysis (p = 0.03). The incidence of admission to the ICU (6.7% vs 11.5%, p = 0.1) and mechanical ventilation (2.5% vs 4.8%, p = 0.3) were also decreased in the oseltamivir group, but was not statistically significant.

Conclusions: This study showed that administration of oseltamivir was associated with shorter length of hospital stay and earlier recovery and discharge of hospital, and a lower mortality rate.