Adverse Drug Reactions in COVID-19 Patients: Protocol for a Living Systematic Review

Abstract

The novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a highly infectious disease with human to human transmission. The COVID-19 may present with mild, moderate, or severe illness. Currently, no proven effective therapies for COVID-19 exist and no vaccine is available. Various pharmacological treatments are currently being tested for patients with COVID-19. The current living systematic review aims to examine the definition, frequency, nature, and severity of the adverse event (AE)/ adverse drug reaction (ADR) occurring in patients with COVID-19 receiving active pharmacological treatment and to compare it against control groups where available. MEDLINE, Embase, Cochrane Central databases will be searched for studies that reported COVID-19 patients receiving treatment for infection caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) with any pharmacological drugs such as but not limited to, chloroquine, hydroxychloroquine, azithromycin, ritonavir, remdesivir, tocilizumab, pirfenidone, etc. Data pertaining to safety parameters like AEs, ADR, serious AEs, serious ADR, treatment non-response, and deterioration of illness will be captured and analysed.