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The warnings from the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are clear. Ivermectin – a drug typically used to treat parasitic infections – should not be used as a treatment for COVID-19 outside of a clinical setting.
However, there is a legal and safe way to access ivermectin as a possible treatment for the virus.
Dr Rowena Dolor is one of the researchers in a government-funded trial examining several reused drugs, including ivermectin, for their potential effectiveness against COVID-19.
“We have done laboratory studies which have shown it to have an antiviral effect against SARS-CoV-2 and other viruses, but we do not know if this laboratory effect will translate into humans,” said Dolor said. “And so we want to do the act of studying to scientifically test whether ivermectin benefits patients with COVID.”
The study is also testing a steroid inhaler commonly used to treat asthma and COPD and an antidepressant for their effectiveness against COVID-19.
However, ivermectin is the experimental treatment that gained the most recent attention because some were buying it in bulk from farm supply stores. The dosage of these products is intended to treat large animals such as horses and cows, and the FDA has reported that many people who have taken the drug have come to hospitals with serious side effects.
In the human trial, safety when using ivermectin is the top priority.
“In this trial, we are actually laying the drug based on the patient’s weight, and we are laying it low based on the desired drug concentration that we need to treat the infection,” Dolor said.
The ACTIV-6 trial, which includes ivermectin, looks for adults who have tested positive for COVID-19 and are showing symptoms. There are already several hundred patients enrolled at around 40 clinical sites, but the researchers want to expand the study to thousands of patients at 250 clinical sites.
The researchers add that it is essential to have a diverse pool of participants, especially from black and Hispanic communities.
“We want to know that the trial results of these studies will be applicable to patients of color or communities of color,” Dolor said. “The good news, however, is that at least 25% of the site’s participants to date are Black or Hispanic Americans.”
Click here to learn more about COVID-19 treatment clinical trials.
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