ABSTRACT

Background: COVID-19 is an infectious disease caused by SARS-CoV-2 virus, which has become the main health issue worldwide. COVID-19 has a wide spectrum of clinical manifestations, ranged from asymptomatic to critical disease, which further can lead to death. In the advanced stage, COVID-19 can cause ARDS (Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome), sepsis shock, and multiorgan failure that increase the hospitalization and mortality rate. Presently, the administration of high dose vitamin C (> 5 gram/day) is being considered as the adjuvant therapy in hospitalized COVID-19 patient. Objective: To explore the effect of high dose vitamin C in hospitalized COVID-19 patients.
M
ethods: Literature searching was done in five different databases (PubMed, Cochrane Library, SpringerLink, Semantic Scholar, and EBSCOhost) with „vitamin C‟, „high dose‟, „COVID-19‟, and „outcome‟ as the keywords.. The subsequent critical appraisal was performed in four relevant studies to assess the validity, importance, and applicability using Oxford Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine checklist. Result: Three studies showed that administration of high dose intravenous vitamin C in hospitalized COVID-19 patient could reduce COVID-19 symptoms, improve laboratory result, and prevent the aggravation of COVID-19 disease, yet its effect in reducing mortality rate was not seen yet. Meanwhile, one study didn‟t show any good effect from the administration of high dose oral vitamin C in COVID-19 patient. Conclusion: The administration of high dose intravenous vitamin C can be considered as the adjuvant therapy in hospitalized COVID-19 patients.
Keywords: high dose vitamin C, COVID-19, clinical symptom improvement, laboratory value improvement, mortality rate reduction