Early on in the ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, the antibiotic azithromycin was regarded as being a potentially highly effective drug against the virus that causes it, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Hundreds of thousands of doses have been dispensed on this basis to treat these patients. Evidence in support of this hypothesis has been lacking, however.
Now, a randomized controlled trial from the UK provides, in its preliminary findings, that it offers no clinical benefit at all, and should be used only for standard indications, that is, if there is any evidence of bacterial infection susceptible to this antibiotic. The study was published in December 2020 in the preprint server medRvix*.
