Arbidol treatment with reduced mortality of adult patients with COVID-19 in Wuhan, China: a retrospective cohort study

BACKGROUND The worldwide COVID-19 pandemic is increasing exponentially and demands an effective and promising therapy at most emergency. METHODS We have assembled a cohort consisting 504 hospitalized COVID-19 patients. Detailed information on patients’ characteristics and antiviral medication use during their stay at designated hospitals along with their pre and post treatment results were collected. The study objective is to evaluate the treatment efficacy of Arbidol, together with the concurrent drugs Oseltamivir and Lopinavir/Ritonavir on mortality and lesion absorption based on chest CT scan. FINDINGS The overall mortality rate was 15.67% in the cohort. The older age, lower SpO2 level, larger lesion, early admission date, and the presence of pre-existing conditions were associated with higher mortality. After adjusting for the patients age, sex, pre-existing condition, SpO2, lesion size, admission date, hospital, and concurrent antiviral drug use, Arbidol was found promising and associated with reduced mortality. The OR for Arbidol is 0·183 (95% CI, 0·075 to 0·446; P<0·001). Furthermore, Arbidol is also associated with faster lesion absorption after adjusting for patient’s characteristics and concurrent antiviral drug use (P=0·0203). INTERPRETATION The broad-spectrum antiviral drug Arbidol was found to be associated with faster