Ivermectin - A Wonder Drug Against COVID Or Just Another Case Hype Without Any Actual Benefit
Over the past one-and-a-half years the people around the world have shown that they are willing to do whatever it takes to prevent catching COIVD-19 or to prevent deaths from it.
Be it 'scientific or plain stupid like injecting disinfectant as Donald Trump suggested, all these have some takers.
In the absence of a proper medicine to treat COVID-19, scientists and doctors across the world have been trying out different existing drugs, which initially showed some promise, but later turned out to be useless.
Hydroxychloroquine, Remdesivir and Plasma therapy etc had initially shown some success, but in the long run, have proven ineffective against COVID-19.
Now there is a new entrant into the game - Ivermectin, a medication used to treat many types of parasite infestation.
What is?Ivermectin?
According to a study, regular use of the oral antiparasitic drug Ivermectin can help in reducing the risk of contracting coronavirus. The research, published in the May-June issue of the American Journal of Therapeutics, is the most comprehensive review of the available data on Ivermectin taken from clinical, in vitro, animal, and real-world studies, its authors said.?
Ivermectin for everyone?
On Monday, Goa Health Minister Vishwajit Rane said that all people above 18 years in the statewill be given Ivermectin drug irrespective of their coronavirus status to bring down mortality.
He said patients will be given Ivermectin 12 mg for a period of five days as expert panels from the UK, Italy, Spain and Japan have found a statistically significant reduction in mortality, time to recovery and viral clearance in COVID-19 patients treated with this medicine.
"I have given instructions for immediate implementation of prophylaxis (action taken to prevent disease) treatment," Rane said.
The minister said this treatment would not prevent COVID-19 infection but it can help reduce the severity.
"The Ivermectin 12 mg tablet will be made available in all the district, sub-district, PHCs, CHCs, sub-health centres, rural dispensaries for people to collect and start treatment immediately, irrespective of any symptoms or anything," Rane said.
But this has many in the medical community alarmed.?
They point out that not only Ivermectin does not have many benefits, but could even be dangerous.
What WHO said
In March this year, the WHO had said that "current evidence on the use of ivermectin to treat COVID-19 patients is inconclusive. Until more data is available, WHO recommends that the drug only be used within clinical trials."
This recommendation, which applies to patients with COVID-19 of any disease severity, is now part of WHOĄ¯s?guidelines on COVID-19 treatments.
