Use of specific antimicrobials for COVID-19: should we prescribe them now or wait for more evidence?

As the number of COVID-19 cases worldwide rises exponentially, clinicians and healthcare systems are faced with a difficult dilemma. Should they focus on supportive care and wait for the results of clinical trials or join other clinicians who are already prescribing specific antimicrobials which may be active against the virus?\n\nEighty per cent of patients with COVID-19 have mild infection, 15% develop severe illness and 5% require critical care admissions for organ support.1 Mortality is currently estimated to be 1%–3%.1 Older patients (\u003e80 years old) and patients with comorbidity such as respiratory disease, diabetes, stroke, cardiac disease and cancer are more likely to die from the illness.2 Mortality for a patient admitted to critical care is estimated to be about 50%; however, this may be dependent on access to and quality of critical care services. So far, no vaccine or drug has been approved to treat human coronaviruses including COVID-19. In addition, there is no validated clinical tool or test to predict patients who are likely to develop complications.\n\nThere are currently multiple …