Anti-parasitic Drug Ivermectin Reduces COVID-19 Transmission

Early administration of Ivermectin can decrease the viral loads and symptom duration in patients with mild COVID-19. This may in turn lead to reduce viral transmission as per a small pilot study which is part of the SAINT project and has been led by the University of Navarra Clinic and the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal) published in the journal EClinicalMedicine, The Lancet.

"Many efforts are focusing on developing treatments for COVID-19, but few are addressing how to reduce viral transmission," says study coordinator Carlos Chaccour, researcher at ISGlobal and physician at the University of Navarra Clinic.

‘Early administration of Ivermectin can decrease the viral loads and symptom duration in patients with mild COVID-19. This may in turn lead to reduce the viral transmission as the administration of vaccine would require almost 2 years immunizing people worldwide.’

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Immunizing with COVID-19 vaccines will require a minimum of two years to stop viral spread worldwide. Hence, uncovering new drugs that can treat or prevent infections remains a priority.

The maximal dose of Ivermectin recommended in Europe was evaluated for its impact on viral transmission when administered within the first days after symptom onset.

COVID-19 Transmission and Ivermectin

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Ivermectin is an antiparasitic drug that is seen to reduce SARS-CoV-2 replication in vitro (in cell lines), albeit at higher concentrations than those recommended for human use. The team enrolled 24 patients with confirmed infection and mild symptoms. They were administered one single dose of Ivermectin or placebo within the first 72 hours after the first symptoms started.

Nasal swabs and blood samples were taken at the moment of enrolment of these patients and also 1, 2 and/or 3 weeks after treatment. No difference was observed in the percentage of PCR-positive patients (100% of patients were positive in both groups) after seven days of treatments. But the mean viral load in the Ivermectin-treated group was lower (around 3x lower at 4 days and up to 18x lower at 7 days post-treatment), although the difference was not statistically significant.

Reduced duration of symptoms was also seen in patients treated with Ivermectin (of 50% for loss of smell and taste and of 30% for cough). Virus-specific IgG antibodies were formed in all patients. However, the mean level of antibodies in the treated group was lower than in the placebo group, possibly due to lower viral load.

Almost no effect was seen on duration of symptoms or makers associated with inflammation that suggests the role of Ivermectin in mechanisms that do not involve a possible anti-inflammatory effect. In other ways the drug may interfere with viral entry in the cells as reported by earlier studies.

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"Our findings are in line with those from recent assays conducted in Bangladesh and Argentina. Although our study is small and it is too early to draw conclusions, the trends observed in viral loads, symptom duration and antibody levels are encouraging and warrant further exploration in larger clinical trials with a higher diversity of patients," says Chaccour.

Source-Medindia