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BSS-45
COVID-19-ICDDR’B -TREATMENT
ICDDR’B endorses anti-parasite Ivermectin for COVID-19 treatment
DHAKA, Dec 7, 2020 (BSS) – International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B) today formally endorsed anti-parasite Ivermectin for COVID-19 treatment revealing its study report which it launched six months ago.
The Dhaka-based international health research institution said their clinical trial showed “patients receiving a five-day course of ivermectin have shown an early viral clearance and improvements of blood biomarkers”.
“The anti-parasitic drug is found to be safe and has shown, at best, a modest benefit for mild coronavirus,” read the statement issued after ICDDR’B staged a dissemination seminar in a city hotel.
ICDDR’B said it got the study findings published in International Journal of Infectious Diseases (IJID) on December 2, 2020, while it launched the trial in July this year to test efficacy of the combination of Ivermectin’s combination with anti-biotic doxycycline.
A doctors’ team led by senior medicine specialist Professor Dr Tarek Alam prescribed the combination six months ago saying they found the experiment to have cured within days all 60 COVID-19 patients as they were administered with the two drugs.
The ICDDR’B, however, said ivermectin alone appeared more effective than its combination with the anti-biotic as it carried out the comparative trial among 68 hospitalised patients at Mugda Medical College nHospital, Kurmitola General Hospital, and Dhaka Medical College and Hospital.
According to the statement patients in the 5-day ivermectin group were 77 percent more likely to have early viral clearance on day 14 while the recovery percentage of patients administered with ivermectin and doxycycline was 61 percent during that time period.
The study required to have administered placebo to patients under the study while their recovery rate was 39 percent.
“The randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial evaluated orally administered ivermectin alone (12mg once daily for 5 days), ivermectin single dose (12mg) in combination with doxycycline (200mg stat doxycycline on day 1 followed by 100mg 12 hourly for next 4 days) compared with placebo,” the statement read.
It added: “The clinical trial showed patients receiving a five-day course of ivermectin have shown an early viral clearance and improvements of blood biomarkers.”
ICDDR’B said the trial showed that on third day 18% of the patients treated with ivermectin alone began to show viral clearance compared to 3 percent who were given the two-drug combination.
It said on the seventh day the percentage stood at 50 and 30 while only 13 percent patients were found with viral clearance receiving placebo.
ICDDR’B said the odds of improvement in clinical status with the 5-day treatment course of ivermectin versus ivermectin and doxycycline, and placebo were also favourable, trending toward reduction of severity of infection indicated by improvement in the blood bio-markers.
Beximco Pharmaceuticals Managing Director Nazmul Hassan MP attended the seminar as the chief guest while Bangladesh Medical Research Council (BMRC) chairman and prime minister’s former health adviser Professor Dr Syed Modasser Ali joined it as the special guest through online.
ICDDR’B acting executive director Dr Tahmeed Ahmed, several health experts and other stakeholders representing different organizations were present at the seminar.
ICDDR’B’s senior Physician scientist Dr Wasif Ali Khan presented the study report as its principal investigator saying the findings conformed to other global studies on ivermectin as a treatment for COVID-19.
“Although the study sample was small to derive at any solid conclusion, the results provide evidence of potential benefit of the early intervention with ivermectin for the treatment of adult patients diagnosed with mild COVID-19,” he said.
Ahmed said it was extremely important to find an affordable and easy-to-use treatment option to fight against this pandemic in low- and middle-income countries like Bangladesh.
“We believe a larger clinical trial with ivermectin may help facilitate decision makers to include it in the COVID-19 treatment protocol and we are exploring for support,” he added.
The study, conducted during July-September 2020, was funded by Beximco Pharmaceuticals Ltd, and the company also provided all the drugs used in this trial.
BSS/PR/MMR/AR/2050 HRS