Ivermectin, which is an antiparasitic, didn’t cut down on the number of people who went into hospitals. This was the largest study yet of how the antiparasitic worked on Covid-19.
Ivermectin has gotten a lot of buzz as a possible treatment for Covid-19, thanks to celebrities like podcast host Joe Rogan. According to infectious-disease researchers, the majority of evidence has shown it to be ineffective against Covid-19 or has relied on low-quality data.
For months, public health officials and researchers have said that the medicine is ineffective in treating the disease. The Food and Medicine Administration has stated that using excessive amounts of the drug is harmful.
Nearly 1,400 Covid-19 patients at risk of severe disease were enrolled in the newest study, which showed no difference between those who received ivermectin as a treatment and those who received a placebo.
“There was no indication that ivermectin is clinically useful,” says Edward Mills, study lead author.
Dr. Mills and his colleagues studied 1,358 people with Covid-19 symptoms who visited one of 12 clinics in the Minas Gerais region of Brazil. The patients all tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 and were at risk of developing a severe illness due to a history of diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, or lung disease, among other factors.
The researchers gave half of the patients a three-day treatment of ivermectin pills. Half of the participants were given a placebo. They kept track of whether the patients were admitted to the hospital within 28 days. Aside from that, researchers also looked at how quickly patients on ivermectin got rid of the virus, how long they spent in the hospital or on ventilators, and if there was any difference in death rates between the two groups.
In order to ensure completeness, the investigators performed three distinct analyses on the data they collected. They reviewed data from all patients, then from patients who got ivermectin or a placebo 24 hours before hospitalization, and finally from patients who stated they had strictly followed their dose schedule. Ivermectin did not enhance patient outcomes in any of the scenarios.
According to Peter Hotez, head of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, “This is the first large, prospective study that should really help put to rest ivermectin and not give any credibility to the use of it for Covid-19.”
Ivermectin is generally used to treat individuals with parasite infections. Ivermectin has been prescribed by certain doctors for Covid-19 sufferers, and some people have discovered ways to get it without a prescription. Although the medicine possesses antiviral capabilities, the FDA has not approved it for the treatment of any viral infections.
Early in the pandemic, scientists felt it would be a possibility for treating Covid-19 because of its antiviral properties. A group of Australian researchers published a report in June 2020 showing that significant quantities of ivermectin could stop coronavirus replication in cell cultures. However, there was a catch: to obtain that effect, a person would have to consume up to 100 times the amount of ivermectin permitted for human use.
Some ivermectin studies published in journals or on preprint sites ahead of peer review found no benefits or worsening of Covid-19 symptoms after treatment with the drug. Some studies have demonstrated some benefit, such as a shorter time to symptom resolution, a reduction in inflammation, a faster virus clearance, and a decrease in death rates, among other things.
According to the National Institutes of Health, however, most studies that showed good impacts had substantial limitations, such as small sample sizes or poorly defined outcomes. Many studies on ivermectin have been retracted because of problems with the statistical analysis, according to the journal Viruses. One study that looked at 100 patients in Lebanon was retracted because of problems with the statistical analysis, the journal said. Large trials on the effectiveness of ivermectin are also being conducted at the National Institutes of Health and Oxford University, though the results have yet to be published.
Ivermectin, according to Dr. Mills, could enhance outcomes in Covid-19 patients who are also combating parasitic illnesses. However, based on his team’s findings, the medicine appears to have no effect on Covid-19 itself, he said.
Other medications that could be repurposed to operate against Covid-19 are also being researched by Dr. Mills and his colleagues. Drugs like Merck & Co. and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics LP’s molnupiravir or Pfizer Inc.’s Paxlovid may be useful because their side effects are well-known, and they may be less expensive to deploy in developing nations.
The drug fluvoxamine, which is routinely used to treat OCD and depression, has shown some potential in Dr. Mills’ and his colleagues’ studies against Covid-19. Fluvoxamine-treated Covid-19 patients had a lower hospitalization rate than those who did not receive the drug, according to a study published in October in the Lancet Global Health.
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