Short Communication
Can post-exposure prophylaxis for COVID-19 be considered as an outbreak response strategy in long-term care hospitals?

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijantimicag.2020.105988Get rights and content

Highlights

  • In the context of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, management of exposure events is a concern.

  • There was a large COVID-19 exposure event at a long-term care hospital in Korea.

  • Post-exposure prophylaxis using hydroxychloroquine was provided to 211 individuals.

  • Disease development was successfully prevented without severe adverse events.

ABSTRACT

In the context of the ongoing global outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), management of exposure events is a concern. Long-term care hospitals (LTCHs) are particularly vulnerable to cluster outbreaks because facilities for patient isolation and healthcare personnel to care for these patients in isolation are difficult to arrange in a large outbreak situation. Although several drugs have been proposed as treatment options, there are no data on the effectiveness and safety of post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) for COVID-19. After a large COVID-19 exposure event in an LTCH in Korea, PEP using hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) was administered to 211 individuals, including 189 patients and 22 careworkers, whose baseline polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests for COVID-19 were negative. PEP was completed in 184 (97.4%) patients and 21 (95.5%) careworkers without serious adverse events. At the end of 14 days of quarantine, all follow-up PCR tests were negative. Based on our experience, further clinical studies are recommended for COVID-19 PEP.

Keywords

Post-exposure prophylaxis
Hydroxychloroquine
SARS-CoV-2
COVID-19
Long-term care hospital

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1

These authors contributed equally to this paper.

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