Introduction:

Chloroquine and its analogue hydroxychloroquine have shown antiviral and anti-inflammatory effects, so it could be an alternative treatment to the new SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus.

Objective:

To describe the safety of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine for treating COVID-19 according to current scientific evidence.

Method:

We used the search strategy for coronavirus OR COVID-19 OR SARS-CoV2 AND Chloroquine AND Hydroxychloroquine, and Pubmed, SciELO, Lilacs, Cochrane Library and Web of Science databases were used. Thirty two bibliographic references were recovered, selection followed the selection criteria.

Conclusions:

The efficacy of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine has not been fully proven, since the results have not been conclusive and differences have been found between them, In addition to the fact that sufficiently representative samples have not been studied. The adverse reactions of these drugs, and the cardiovascular ones are the most dangerous, should not be ignored since they have occurred with certain frequency and in relation to the administered dose. Therefore, it is necessary to carry out more randomized clinical trials, with greater control of biases and representative samples, to evaluate the efficacy and safety of these drugs.

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