Assessment of knowledge, attitude, and practices towards hydroxy chloroquine pre-exposure prophylaxis among health care professionals.

Abstract

Background: There is an urgent need for developing potential drug targets to protect the health care professionals (HCPs) who are at high risk of infection from coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) as they are directly and/ indirectly involved in treatment facility. We aimed to assess knowledge, attitude, and practices towards hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) pre-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) among HCPs directly and/ indirectly involved in COVID-19 treatment. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was multi-centric, and data was collected from HCPs (only doctors and nurses) involved directly or indirectly with COVID-19 patient treatment. The study questionnaire consisted of socio-demographic profile; assessment of HCQ knowledge, attitude, practices, and related adverse drug reactions (ADRs). Results: Of the recruited 374 HCPs, 302 fulfilled the study criteria. Mean age of participants was 33.30 {±standard deviation 7.65}. 64.2% of the participants were male. 16.9% of the individuals (n=51) had co-morbidities. All the HCPs had basic knowledge of COVID-19 and 87.42% were aware of the role of HCQ as PEP. Further, 269 participants (89.07%) were aware that HCQ can cause ADRs. 56.6% participants agreed that HCQ had a protective role against COVID-19 and 54.3 % participants considered that PEP with HCQ had ‘more benefit’ than risk. 52.32% (n=158) HCPs had used HCQ as PEP and 52.53 % (n=83) of these participants had completed the recommended drug course. Twenty participants (12.67%) had experienced ADR, and 12 had reported it to ADR monitoring centre. Conclusion: Our data shows that HCPs are aware of COVID-19 and HCQ prophylaxis. Approximately 57% of the participants agreed that HCQ has a protective role against COVID-19 and 50% of the participants had taken HCQ prophylaxis. Only 12.67% of the participants reported an ADR and in none of them, it was serious enough to discontinue the drug.