It seems like there is a lot of controversy flaring over the antiparasitic drug ivermectin for the treatment of COVID-19.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has dropped its recommendation against the use of ivermectin for the treatment of COVID-19, adding that it cannot recommend for or against the use of the drug, leaving the decision of using the drug to doctors and their patients.
Last week, the new NIH guidelines stated, “Results from adequately powered, well-designed, and well-conducted clinical trials are needed to provide more specific, evidence-based guidance on the role of ivermectin for the treatment of COVID-19.”
However, there have been a lot of arguments over the use of ivermectin in patients with COVID-19.
The new NIH update has disappointed members of the Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance (FLCCC). A group of 10 doctors argued against each limitation that drove the NIH’s ruling.
The group said that the recommendation against ivermectin was dropped, but a neutral approach is not acceptable as the total US death toll has surpassed 400,000 since last spring. They said results from studies are enough to support the use of ivermectin, adding the drug will immediately save lives.
“Patients do not have time to wait and we as healthcare providers in society do not have that time either,” they said.
Earlier, NIH invited the group to present evidence to its treatment guidance panel on January 6 with the details of the emerging science surrounding ivermectin. The group referred to rapidly growing evidence of the drug’s efficacy in treating coronavirus infection.
In December, Dr. Pierre Kory, FLCCC president and co-founder, said before a Senate panel that ivermectin is a COVID-19 “miracle” drug.
“Please, I’m just asking that they review our manuscript,” he told the senators.
Dr. Kory, who is also a pulmonary and critical care specialist at Aurora St. Luke’s Medical Center in Milwaukee, added, “We have immense amounts of data to show that ivermectin must be implemented and implemented now.”
Earlier this month, Dr. Paul Sax of Women’s Hospital in Boston wrote in a blog post that ivermectin has more robust evidence for the treatment of COVID-19 than hydroxychloroquine ever did.
In the blog post, published in the New England Journal of Medicine Journal Watch, he wrote, “But we’re not quite yet at the ‘practice-changing’ level. Results from at least 5 randomized clinical trials are expected soon that might further inform the decision.”
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved ivermectin for the treatment of onchocerciasis (river blindness) and strongyloidiasis. However, the agency has not approved the drug for treating viral infections.
Nevertheless, some physicians said they would not be advising the drug to their COVID-19 patients.
Dr. Amesh Adalja of the Johns Hopkins University Center for Health Security in Baltimore, Maryland, told Medscape Medical News that the NIH update has not changed his mind and he is not prescribing it for his patients.
Although “there’s enough of a signal” that he would like to see more data, he added, “we haven’t seen anything in terms of a really robust study.”
Dr. Adalja said, “It’s not enough to see if it works, but we need to see who it works in and when it works in them,” acknowledging that “some prominent physicians” are recommending it.
For instance, Dr. Paul Marik of Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk has developed a treatment protocol for the use o ivermectin to prevent and treat COVID-19. Dr. Marik is a cofounder of FLCCC. The article was originally published in Medscape Medical News.
