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Alberta Canada | BACKGROUND
• Ivermectin is used to treat parasitic infections (such as intestinal worms or lice) in
both humans and animals. Ivermectin is generally safe when used according to
the label, but can cause mild side effects like nausea, diarrhea, fatigue,
dizziness, and rash.
• Laboratory studies performed in monkey cells showed that ivermectin is able to
stop the virus that causes COVID-19 from growing in cells. This raised interest in
ivermectin as a potential treatment for COVID-19, even though many medicines
that are effective in the laboratory are not effective when they are used in people.
• There is a lot of hype about ivermectin in social media, but it is still unclear if
ivermectin actually prevents COVID-19 infection or is an effective treatment for
COVID-19 because of the way studies have been done so far. This review
summarizes the scientific research of ivermectin to provide guidance to public
health officials and clinicians.
KEY FINDINGS
• The studies evaluating ivermectin treatment are not high enough quality to
properly decide if ivermectin is useful or not. Most studies did not clearly describe
the effect of the other medications given to patients or what other factors might
influence their findings (“confounding”), did not have an adequate comparator
group to assess if there was a difference in patients given ivermectin, or were too
small to be sure that any effect of ivermectin seen was real.
• With respect to ivermectin's ability to prevent infection with COVID-19, four low
quality studies showed that ivermectin may reduce the risk of COVID-19
infection; however, there were several confounding factors and we don’t know
what else the study participants were doing that might have influenced their risk
of infection. More studies are needed to show if ivermectin can be used to
prevent infection.
• With respect to ivermectin's ability to treat people with COVID-19, seven studies
that had a control group (ie. a group of participants that did not receive
ivermectin) reported the effect of ivermectin on death from COVID-19. Four
showed that deaths from COVID-19 went down, while three showed that deaths
from COVID-19 were not affected. All seven studies were small and were of low
or very low quality, so we can’t be sure that their findings were real. More studies
are needed to show if ivermectin can be used to treat COVID-19.
• The available data on ivermectin purchasing in Alberta doesn’t clearly show us if
it is being used for purposes other than parasitic infections (ie. for COVID-19).
RECOMMENDATIONS
• At this time, ivermectin should not be prescribed or taken to prevent COVID-19
outside of a clinical trial, as we need to establish whether it is truly useful.
• At this time, ivermectin should not be prescribed or taken to treat COVID-19
outside of a clinical trial, as we need to establish whether it is truly useful.
• Scientists in Alberta should support clinical trials of ivermectin to help clarify
whether ivermectin is effective against COVID-19 or not.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.alb... | |
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An update on the effectiveness of ivermectin.
