IVERMECTIN DOES NOT WORK FOR COVID. That is the finding of the ACTIV-6 study recently published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). Today we examine the question: Is ivermectin effective?
Have you heard of ivermectin? It is a widely available and inexpensive drug on the World Health Organization’s list of essential medicines for treating river blindness. Here is the US Centers for Disease Control’s take on river blindness:
Onchocerciasis (river blindness) is a neglected tropical disease (NTD) caused by the parasitic worm Onchocerca volvulus. Repeated bites by blackflies of the genus Simulium transmit the infection.
The disease is known as river blindness because the blackfly that transmits the infection lives and breeds near fast-flowing streams and rivers, mostly near remote rural villages. The infection can result in visual impairment and sometimes blindness.
Additionally, onchocerciasis can cause skin disease, including intense itching, rashes, or nodules under the skin. Worldwide, onchocerciasis is second only to trachoma as an infectious cause of blindness.
But let’s get back to the curious Ivermectin story. First, a brief detour.
“Curiouser a“d cu“iouser!” cried Alic” (sh” was so surprised that for the moment she quite forgot how to speak good English); “now I’m ope“ing “’m lI’m the largest telescope that was! Good-bye, feet!” (for when ”he looked”down at her feet, they seemed to be almost out of sight, they were getting so far off). “Oh, my poor“little fe“t, I wonder who will put on your shoes and stockings for you now, dears? I’m sure I sI’m’t be aI’man’tshalshan’t great deal too far off to trouble myself about you: you must manage the best way you can; — but I must be kind to them,” thought Al”ce, “or p”rhaps “hey won’t“walk twon’ty I wwon’to go! Let me see: I’ll give thI’ll new pI’llof boots every Christmas.” — Alice in Wonderland.”
Ivermectin — Does it fight COVID-19?
Before we dismiss ivermectin as an effective treatment for COVID-19, let’s look at how we got to a place where folks were touting it as a miracle drug for novel coronavirus management. We need to go to a petri dish.
Ivermectin dramatically lowers the proliferation of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. A single treatment appeared to be associated with an approximately 5000-fold reduction in virus by 48 hours in the lab. Understandably, many wondered if we could repurpose this widely available parasite medicine.
You don’t often hear that the median inhibitory concentration in cell culture is about 100-times higher than what is achievable with human dosing. Nevertheless, anecdotal reports of miraculous cures proliferated widely in the United States.
Cohort studies hinted that getting ivermectin was associated with good COVID-19 infection recoveries. Cohort studies follow groups of people over time. A cohort is a group of people, and the studies can be forward-looking (prospective) or backward-looking (retrospective).
You probably know the rest: A narrative developed (primarily online) that authorities were suppressing the good ivermectin news to pad their pockets with money. While studies knocked down ivermectin as a successful drug for COVID-19, the ivermectin miracle story rose again and again.
The conspiracy stories persisted, even in the face of randomized trials showing no drug effect on COVID. Part of the fuel was some larger trials that later proved to be fraudulent.
I thought ivermectin had taken its last breath with the TOGETHER trial. Ivermectin failed (compared with a placebo or another therapy) to reduce hospitalization or emergency department visits in this 1400-patient Brazilian study.
Ivermectin and Covid — A new study
Now we have a new study randomized outpatients with COVID-19 to ivermectin or a placebo. Researchers included nearly 1600 individuals from 93 sites around the United States. Sixty percent were women, and the median age 47. Approximately half had received a vaccination.
The researchers examined the time to clinical recovery. Did ivermectin help individuals to get better more quickly? Publishing in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the ACTIV-6 study showed:
Ivermectin did not improve the time to recovery, defined as having three symptom-free days.
Fortunately, there were few serious outcomes. Serious outcomes (such as hospitalization, death, urgent care, or emergency department visits) did not occur frequently — 32 events in the ivermectin group and 28 in the placebo cohort. Fortunately, death appeared rare (one case occurred in someone receiving ivermectin).
Ivermectin and COVID-19 — My take
ACTIV-6 shows that ivermectin is no miracle cure. That’s the science. Thank you for joining me for this look at the question: Is ivermectin effective? Please consider signing up to follow this blog.
The information I provided in this blog is for educational purposes only and does not substitute for professional medical advice. Please consult a medical professional or healthcare provider if you seek medical advice, diagnoses, or treatment. I am not liable for risks or issues associated with using or acting upon the information in this blog.
