Ivermectin futile for mild to moderate COVID-19, study finds

Early treatment with the antiparasitic drug ivermectin does not lower the risk of severe disease when given to patients with mild to moderate COVID-19, according to a study today in JAMA Internal Medicine.And a related study in the same journal finds connections between prescribing patterns for ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine by political-party vote share in 2020.Lack of efficacy, more adverse eventsDoctors at 20 Malaysian government hospitals and a COVID-19 quarantine center conducted an open-label, randomized clinical trial on the use of ivermectin in the first week of COVID-19 symptom onset in hospitalized adults 50 years and older with mild or moderate illness and underlying medical conditions.

The study took place from May 31 to Oct 25, 2021.Average patient age was 62.5 years, 54.5% were women, 51.8% had received two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, 75.3% had high blood pressure, 53.5% had diabetes, 37.6% had abnormal cholesterol levels, and 23.9% were obese.Patients were randomly assigned in a 1:1 ratio to receive oral ivermectin daily for 5 days plus standard care (241 patients) or standard care only (249).

Standard care consisted of treatment of symptoms and monitoring of clinical findings, laboratory test results, and chest imaging for signs of disease progression.Severe disease was defined as hypoxia (low oxygen levels) requiring the use of supplemental oxygen to maintain oxygen saturation at 95% or higher.Fifty-two of 241 patients in the ivermectin group (21.6%) and 43 of 249 patients in the standard-care-only group (17.3%) became severely ill (relative risk [RR], 1.25; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.87 to 1.80).There were no significant differences between the two groups in time to symptom resolution or rates