NEW ISRAELI STUDY SUGGESTS IVERMECTIN DECREASES THE DURATION AND INFECTIOUSNESS OF SICKNESS; WHO WARN AGAINST ITS USE

Mon 09 August 2021:

According to a new Israeli study, ivermectin may help to fight Covid infection and minimize infectiousness, for less than a $1 a day.

The Jerusalem Post reports that the widely used anti-parasite drug was tested in a small randomised control trial, which is yet to be peer-reviewed, and saw 22% more patients who received ivermectin test negative for the virus by day six than the placebo group.

The study of 89 people also found that 13% of ivermectin patients were infectious after six days, compared with 50% of the placebo group.

“Our study shows first and foremost that ivermectin has antiviral activity,” Schwartz said, according to the JP. “It also shows that there is almost a 100% chance that a person will be noninfectious in four to six days, which could lead to shortening isolation time for these people. This could have a huge economic and social impact.”

 

But he claimed that “this drug will not bring any big economic profits,” and therefore the pharmaceutical industry has stopped short of funding research into its efficacy against Covid.

Merck, which manufacturers ivermectin, said earlier this year that there was “no scientific basis for a potential therapeutic effect against Covid-19 from pre-clinical studies”.

Ivermectin is being studied by University of Oxford scientists as a possible Covid treatment as part of a UK government-backed study that aims to aid recoveries in non-hospital settings.

A report in the Times earlier this year described Ivermectin as a Covid “wonder drug”, with the data from the countries where it was being used suggesting mortality had fallen. The FT has meanwhile reported on a University of Liverpool meta-analysis which it said “could cut chance of Covid-19 deaths by up to 75%” – with striking results from a number of other smaller RCTs.

While World Health Organization, US and European regulators have recommended against using ivermectin in Covid-19 patients – largely due to the absence of large, standalone trials – it is being used to treat the illness in some countries, including India, Mexico, Bolivia, and elsewhere in south America.