The University of Oxford has launched an extensive study to examine the use of COVID-19 drug Ivermectin for the virus's treatment, in the middle of guidelines worldwide, warning against the administration of the medicine.
More so, several experts have also suggested that the anti-parasitic drug appears ineffective against the COVID-19 that has infected more than 180 million and claimed the lives of over a million people worldwide.
This new research comes as well, amid guidelines throughout the world, warning against the use of Ivermectin. While the World Health Organization has recommended that this drug can only be used in clinical trial backgrounds, the United States Food and Drug Administration has cautioned against its use in humans.
In relation to this, ThePrint reported that doctors in India had widely used Ivermectin during the second phase of the pandemic although the government had dropped it earlier this month, from its list of advised COVID-19 treatment.
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What Makes Ivermectin Popular?
Even the manufacturing company, Merck, which produces Ivermectin, in its February statement, noted, there was a lack of scientific basis for the potential therapeutic impact of the drug against COVID-19.
Despite these, scientists have continued investigating the efficacy of treating COVID-19 infection mainly because of the affordability of the drug, well-established safety profile, as well as widespread affordability.
One of the studies conducted about the drug's effectiveness against the virus the one that came out in the American Journal of Therapeutics.
While doctors in India are divided when it comes to the efficacy of Ivermectin as a COVID-19 drug, they admit, it is low cost, safe, and easily accessible.
According to Dr. Kabir Sardana from Ram Manohar Lohai Hospital, he has recently written to the Indian Council Medical Research or ICMR listing several studies that back the use of Ivermectin in moderate to mild COVID-19 patients.
The drug is effective in the first phase of the infection when the virus is still multiplying, said Ardana alleging that pharmaceuticals are attempting to push costlier drugs, instead.
Pulmonologist Dr. Desh Deepak, from the same hospital, said, the drug had little effect although he added, it is easily available, not to mention, considered safe.
No Noticeable Effect
Dr. Deepak also said, there is no noticeable effect of Ivermectin on COVID-19 patients. They prescribed the drug to all their patients during the pandemic's second wave since they know it is not harmful.
Nonetheless, the infection in these patients progressed as independently as they would otherwise, minus Ivermectin.
Meanwhile, Dr. Shital Poojary, a dermatologist who has been attending to COVID-19 patients at KJ Somaija Medical College in Mumbai said, Ivermectin was widely used in the first wave when not a lot of information was understood about the virus.
The dermatologist explained, they did see mild to moderate COVID-19 patients benefit from Ivermectin treatment. He also said they did not see any alarming side effects in their patients.
Similarly, medicine professor Dr. Sandeep Garg, at the Maulana Azad Medical College in Delhi said, Ivermectin as a COVID-19 drug, exhibited promise, although clear scientific evidence remains lacking.
Reduces Viral Loads in 2 Hours
A team from Monash University in Australia found that the drug can reduce viral loads in cells within two hours. Experts, however, said that the levels of the drug used in these studies were not safe for human consumption.
A review article that came out in the American Journal of Therapeutics has been used by physicians in the US, namely Pierre Kory, Paul Marik, and others to back the use of Ivermectin.
Nevertheless, an earlier edition of the article had been rejected by another journal because of a series of robust, unbacked claims based on research with insufficient statistical substance.
Related information is shown on Dr. Mike Hansen's YouTube video below:
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