Hydroxychloroquine/prednisone

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An event is serious (based on the ICH definition) when the patient outcome is:

• * death

• * life-threatening

• * hospitalisation

• * disability

• * congenital anomaly

• * other medically important event

In a retrospective cohort study conducted in China involving one-to-one telephone correspondence during follow-up from 22 March 2020 to 25 March 2020, two women aged 62 year and 47 year, respectively, were described, who developed COVID-19 pneumonia during immunosuppressive therapy with hydroxychloroquine and/or prednisone for systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) [routes not stated].

Patient 1: A 62-year-old woman, who had interstitial pneumonitis and SLE, had been receiving hydroxychloroquine 400 mg/day from March 2019, along with prednisone 10 mg/day. On 22 January 2020, she was hospitalised due to critical COVID-19 pneumonia. She did not have any contact with the COVID- 19 positive cases. She was treated with unspecified high-dose glucocorticoid, and was discharged on 04 March 2020 with improvement.

Patient 2: A 47-year-old woman, who had nephrotic syndrome, hypertension and SLE, had been receiving hydroxychloroquine 200 mg/day from October 2019. On 17 January 2020, she was hospitalised due to critical COVID-19 pneumonia. She did not have any contact with the COVID- 19 positive cases. She was treated with off-label prednisone 30 mg/day. On 25 January 2020, she died due to respiratory failure, which was associated with COVID-19 pneumonia.