WHO recommends ‘not to use’ ivermectin for patients with COVID-19

The World Health Organization rrecommended Wednesday “do not use ivermectin“for patients of covid-19except in clinical trials, according to a statement from the organization.

The ivErmectina is a commonly used antiparasitic drug that is heavily promoted in social networks But according to the WHO expert group, data from clinical studies to measure its effectiveness against COVID-19 have not yielded conclusive results.

“Our recommendation is not to use ivermectin for patients with COVID-19, regardless of the level of severity or duration of symptoms,” said Janet Díaz, COVID-clinical response team leader. 19 from the United Nations agency, during a press conference.

He pointed out that the only exception to this recommendation, based on the current state of research, is for clinical trials.

Ivermectin Clinical Trials

WHO experts drew their conclusions from a total of 16 randomized clinical trials with 2,400 participants, but some of those trials compared ivermectin with other drugs.

The number of studies comparing ivermectin to placebo “is much smaller,” said Dr Bram Rochwerg, a researcher at McMaster University in Canada and a member of the WHO panel that conducted the assessment.

Coronavirus: “Ivermectin is not approved because it leaves no one income”

Díaz and Rochwerg said the recommendations are “live” and will be updated as new research confirms or expands the current state of knowledge.

WHO recommendations

The WHO recommendation, the first on ivermectin, joins that of the European Medicines Agency which, like the WHO, recommends its use only in clinical trials. Its US counterpart, the FDA, explains on its website why ivermectin should not be used.

This recommendation is likely to arouse skepticism and anger among many supporters of this veterinary and human medicine, used against parasites such as scabies, lice or those that cause onchocerciasis.

The success of this drug comes in particular from an Australian study published in early 2020 which observed an efficacy in vitro, that is to say in the laboratory, of ivermectin on Sars-CoV-2, the virus responsible for covid -19.

Ivermectin is inexpensive and is already often used in some Latin American countries, among others, and shares certain characteristics with hydroxychloroquine, which are defended by some doctors and politicians, despite the fact that its effectiveness has not not been shown and a major clinical trial concluded that it had no effect.

AFP