Charity distributes ivermectin (Ivermectin) in Burundi, East Africa, February 2019.
Ivermectin, an inexpensive and safe drug widely used to combat parasites, reduced infections, hospitalizations and deaths by about 75 percent in communist pneumonia (Wuhan pneumonia, Covid-19), a study showed.
More than 30 trials around the world found that Ivermectin resulted in “repeated, consistent and substantial improvements in clinical outcomes” in Wuhan pneumonia at all stages of Covid-19 disease, the Daily Mail reported Feb. 25.
The peer-reviewed study, to be published in the U.S. journal Frontiers of Pharmacology, says the evidence is so strong that the drug, which is used to treat head lice and scabies, should become the standard of care everywhere, thereby accelerating global recovery.
The data are overwhelming – we are in the midst of an Epidemic and this is an incredibly effective way to combat it,” said study co-author Professor Paul Marik, director of emergency and pulmonary care at Eastern Virginia Medical School in the United States. . If we use ivermectin widely, our community can open up.”
Other drugs had been touted as effective treatments against coronavirus, only for trials to dash hopes – notably the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine.
An earlier study by Professor Andrew Hill of the University of Liverpool (UK) also concluded that ivermectin could reduce mortality by about three-quarters.
He suggested that a larger trial should be conducted before it is approved by UK regulators. A new trial of ivermectin as a treatment for Covid-19 will soon begin at Oxford University.
Dr. Tess Lawrie, director of the Evidence-Based Medicine Consultancy in Bath, England, convened an online summit of international experts last weekend to discuss the new data. This included evidence that widespread use of ivermectin in India and parts of South America has led to significant reductions in infections and deaths.
24 Dr. Lawrie submitted a 97-page report to the World health Organization urging it to immediately recommend the use of ivermectin for the treatment of Covid-19.
The drug is taken in tablet or drop form and is licensed in the UK only as a treatment for parasites, head lice and scabies.
It has been used by hundreds of millions of patients over the past 30 years, mainly in developing countries, and costs about £50 per patient (less in some countries), far cheaper than other new Covid-19 treatments, such as the rheumatoid disease drug tocilizumab, which costs £1,000 per patient.
The U.K. drug and healthcare regulator said it is aware of global studies using ivermectin for Covid-19 and will review its evidence.
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