Succesful "off label" use isn't unknown and if this is such a case it will be most welcome. Is this being picked up elsehere?
Ivermectin is the new chloroquin. A few small and incomplete studies seem to show some positive effect while others show no effect. There was no effort to separate out effects of giving people ivermectin as opposed to other drugs they were receiving at the same time. The results don't seem to be better than just giving someone a placebo. It's not like the steroid treatment developed in the UK which showed unmistakable results pretty quickly.
Here's what the US has to say about it.
Why You Should Not Use Ivermectin to Treat or Prevent COVID-19
There seems to be a growing interest in a drug called ivermectin to treat humans with COVID-19. Ivermectin is often used in the U.S. to treat or prevent parasites in animals. The FDA has received multiple reports of patients who have required medical support and been hospitalized after self-medicating with ivermectin intended for horses.
And also:
There’s a lot of misinformation around, and you may have heard that it’s okay to take large doses of ivermectin. That is wrong.
Here's another US government source:
Ivermectin
There are insufficient data for the COVID-19 Treatment Guidelines Panel (the Panel) to recommend either for or against the use of ivermectin for the treatment of COVID-19. Results from adequately powered, well-designed, and well-conducted clinical trials are needed to provide more specific, evidence-based guidance on the role of ivermectin in the treatment of COVID-19.
There have been some test tube studies of ivermectin, but to produce the same effects in humans would require administering 100 times as much of the drug as is approved for human use.
Ivermectin has been shown to inhibit the replication of SARS-CoV-2 in cell cultures.13 However, pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic studies suggest that achieving the plasma concentrations necessary for the antiviral efficacy detected in vitro would require administration of doses up to 100-fold higher than those approved for use in humans.14,15 Even though ivermectin appears to accumulate in the lung tissue, predicted systemic plasma and lung tissue concentrations are much lower than 2 µM, the half-maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) against SARS-CoV-2 in vitro.16-19 Subcutaneous administration of ivermectin 400 µg/kg had no effect on SARS-CoV-2 viral loads in hamsters. However, there was a reduction in olfactory deficit (measured using a food-finding test) and a reduction in the interleukin (IL)-6:IL-10 ratio in lung tissues.20
The WHO say not to use it outside of clinical trials.
WHO advises that ivermectin only be used to treat COVID-19 within clinical trials
The current evidence on the use of ivermectin to treat COVID-19 patients is inconclusive. Until more data is available, WHO recommends that the drug only be used within clinical trials.
Here is the Alberta Health Services report on it:
COVID-19 Scientific Advisory Group Rapid Evidence Report
There is a lot of hype about ivermectin in social media, but it is still unclear if ivermectin actually prevents COVID-19 infection or is an effective treatment for COVID-19 because of the way studies have been done so far. This review summarizes the scientific research of ivermectin to provide guidance to public health officials and clinicians.
The evidence for ivermectin being useful against COVID-19 is thin to non-existent.
With respect to ivermectin's ability to treat people with COVID-19, seven studies that had a control group (ie. a group of participants that did not receive ivermectin) reported the effect of ivermectin on death from COVID-19. Four showed that deaths from COVID-19 went down, while three showed that deaths from COVID-19 were not affected. All seven studies were small and were of low or very low quality, so we can’t be sure that their findings were real. More studies are needed to show if ivermectin can be used to treat COVID-19.
All of these are from early February to March.
According to this source:
Ivermectin: why a potential COVID treatment isn’t recommended for use
The first claims about ivermectin as a COVID-19 treatment were made in early 2020. In late 2020 a research group in India published a summary of studies which seemed to show some improvement in survival using this drug. However, the paper got pulled from publication because the evidence was considered to be thin, and the authors were found to have been promoting their own treatment system.
A larger trial was done and the results were published in March of this year which showed no effect on COVID-19. They said that larger trials would be needed to see if there were any other benefits of the drug. When scientists say "larger trials are needed" for a treatment to see if it has any effect, then they are effectively saying that if there are any benefits they're slim to non-existent.
One larger randomised clinical trial was published in March 2021. This showed no effect of ivermectin on duration of symptoms of adults with mild COVID-19. The authors stated that the findings did not support the use of ivermectin in these patients, but again highlighted that larger trials were needed to determine whether the drug had other benefits.
People are doing more studies on it, as well as on metformin (an anti-diabetes medication) a and fluvoxamine (an antidepressant). Pay attention to these last two names, as you may see them hyped next by the same people who have been hyping every other quack remedy that comes along.
More studies are underway. A large, multicentre trial began in February to determine the effectiveness of ivermectin as well as metformin (an anti-diabetes medication) and fluvoxamine (an antidepressant) in preventing COVID-19 disease progression.
This is why I said that ivermectin is the new chloroquin. There's no evidence that it works, but the tin foil hat brigade are promoting it and the quacks are selling it on their web sites as the miracle cure.
There is however something that will protect you against COVID-19. It's called a vaccine. There are multiple ones available, they're proven to work highly effectively, and you can get yours absolutely free of charge in most countries.
So, get the jab and leave the fish tank cleaner for cleaning fish tanks.
timesofindia.indiatimes.com
