AT THE BEGINNING OF During the Covid epidemic, some medicines had the reputation of being able to cure the virus, although there is no evidence. While there are now scientifically proven drugs used to treat Covid, it’s understandable that you still have questions about the drugs that were once touted as the next big thing in the treatment of the virus when research was still in its infancy. Ivermectin is one of them.
If you remember, ivermectin was promoted by some as a drug that can help treat the virus. One was QAnon supporter Veronica Wolski, who died in 2021 of complications from Covid. Wolski’s supporters accused his medical team of medical malpractice by not giving him ivermectin. Some people were so desperate to get ivermectin that they ordered animal formulations of the drug. That pushed the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to issue a warning in 2020 about the move and its potential side effects.
But what is ivermectin and what does the data say about it now? Doctors break it down.
What is ivermectin, too?
VERMECTIN by A FDA-approved medications for the treatment of intestinal strongyloidiasis and onchocerciasis, two conditions caused by roundworms. Ivermectin is also used topically to treat parasites such as head lice and skin conditions such as rosacea.
Ivermectin “works by interfering with nerve and muscle function in the parasites,” says Jamie Alan, PhD, associate professor of pharmacology and toxicology at Michigan State University.
In animals, ivermectin is often used to prevent heartworm. “It’s used a lot in animal husbandry,” says Thomas Russo, MD, professor and chief of infectious diseases at the University of Buffalo in New York. “It is used to clean many domestic and edible animals of various insects.” However, Russo emphasizes that the animal formulation of ivermectin is different from that used for humans.
Why did people think ivermectin could help with Covid?
THERE WAS ONE A lab study on the potential effect of ivermectin on SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid. That study, which was published in the journal Antiviral research in 2020, found that ivermectin caused a 5,000-fold reduction in SARS-CoV-2 within 48 hours in cell culture. As a result, the researchers wrote that ivermectin “has the potential to be repurposed” as a drug to treat Covid.
But that was in a lab study on cells — not humans, Russo said. That study also used very high doses of ivermectin that would be difficult to achieve in humans, because of how much of the drug can be absorbed into the body, she said.
Finally, Russo says talk about ivermectin’s effect on Covid was too much “speculation”.
What does the data say?
HUMAN RESEARCH I never found that ivermectin was a good treatment for Covid. The FDA has made it clear that “currently available clinical trial data do not demonstrate that ivermectin is effective against Covid 19 in humans.”
A large clinical trial published in New England Journal of Medicine in 2022 more than 3,500 people who were infected with Covid took ivermectin or a placebo. The researchers found that people in the ivermectin group were less likely to be hospitalized due to Covid. It also did not lower their risk of going to the ER with Covid.
A double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study published in STOP in 2023 he also found that ivermectin did not help in treating the virus. In the study, more than 1,400 adults with Covid were given ivermectin or a placebo. The researchers found that people improved in both groups at the same time. “These findings do not support the use of ivermectin among patients without Covid-19,” the researchers concluded.
“The evidence suggests that ivermectin is not effective in treating Covid,” Alan said.
Alan points out that there are potential “serious side effects” from taking ivermectin if you don’t need it, including rapid heartbeat, facial swelling, swollen feet, low blood pressure, dizziness, diarrhea, nausea, low white blood cells, and hepatitis.
There are three drugs that have been proven to treat Covid—nirmatrelvir/ritonavir (Paxlovid), remdesivir (Veklury), and molnupiravir (Lagevrio), Russo said. If you have been infected with Covid and are at high risk of serious complications from the virus, we recommend that you contact your doctor about the next steps.
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