The hydroxychloroquine debate: a therapeutic dilemma for general practitioners

Romain Lutaud (1, 2, 3) , Dimiti Scronias (4) , Jeremy K Ward (5) , Pierre Verger (3, 2)

1 AMU SMPM MED - Aix-Marseille Université - École de médecine
2 VITROME - Vecteurs - Infections tropicales et méditerranéennes
3 ORS PACA - Observatoire régional de la santé Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur [Marseille]
4 Hôpital Cochin [AP-HP]
5 SESSTIM - U1252 INSERM - Aix Marseille Univ - UMR 259 IRD - Sciences Economiques et Sociales de la Santé & Traitement de l'Information Médicale

France has been at the epicenter of the worldwide debate about hydroxychloroquine, as the main advocacy for its use to treat COVID-19 comes from a research unit led by Didier Raoult in Marseille. Among a national panel of 2940 general practitioners, we found that physicians in the areas most strongly affected by the epidemic or closest to the epicenter of the controversy reported that the hydroxychloroquine debate had made it difficult for them to deal with patients' treatment requests. Their adherence to official recommendations was also lower. It will be necessary to examine the conditions producing so strong a conflict.

Mots clés: hydroxychloroquine physicians; family epidemics advocacy covid-19

Domaines: Bactériologie; Virologie; Parasitologie; Cardiologie et système cardiovasculaire; Maladies émergentes; Maladies infectieuses

Romain Lutaud, Dimiti Scronias, Jeremy K Ward, Pierre Verger. The hydroxychloroquine debate: a therapeutic dilemma for general practitioners. European Journal of Public Health, 2021, 31 (2), pp.283-285. ⟨10.1093/eurpub/ckab002⟩. ⟨hal-03334318⟩