MAJ gets support for call to use Ivermectin to treat COVID-19

 

The Medical Association of Jamaica has received support from the local medical community for its proposal to use Ivermectin in the treatment of COVID-19.

 

The MAJ on Thursday called for the government to urgently import supplies of the drug to treat patients battling illness.

 

Ivermectin is used to treat parasitic infestations but the MAJ says the drug has proven to contain anti-inflammatory and anti-viral properties which can guard against the coronavirus.

 

Dr. Kathy-Ann Pate-Robinson, Infectious Diseases Consultant at the University Hospital of the West Indies, has acknowledged the benefits of the drug and suggested that "at this point, anything that has reasonable evidence that it is decently safe and has some benefit to slow down COVID or prevent death is a reasonable alternative."

 

However, she pointed to the practical and legal difficulties in getting this proposal into motion.

 

"[T]he burden that the ministry has is that they have to provide a guideline or guidance for physicians to use the drug that will provide safe usage for the country really. So I agree that we need to find a way to make it available sooner rather than later and I'm hoping they can come to a decision soon," she said. 

 

 

 

A study shows that the medication Ivermectin cuts COVID infections, hospitalisations and deaths by about 75 per cent.

 

A report in Britain's Daily Mail newspaper says more than 30 trials across the world found that Ivermectin causes repeated, consistent, large magnitude improvements in clinical outcomes at all stages of the coronavirus.

 

The peer-reviewed study, to be published in the US journal Frontiers of  Pharmacology, says the evidence is so strong that the drug – used to treat head lice and scabies – should become a standard therapy everywhere to hasten global recovery.

 

An earlier study by Professor Andrew Hill of Liverpool University also concluded that Ivermectin cuts death rates by around three-quarters. 

 

Professor Hill recommended there should be larger trials before it was approved by UK regulators. 

 

A new trial of Ivermectin as a COVID-19 treatment is due to start shortly at Oxford University.

 

A 97-page report was sent to the World Health Organisation on Thursday, urging it immediately to recommend Ivermectin to treat the corornavirus. 

 

The drug, taken in tablet form or as drops, is licensed in Britain only as a treatment for parasitic worms, head lice and scabies.

 

It has been used by hundreds of millions of patients over the last 30 years, mainly in developing countries, and at around £50 per patient is far cheaper than other new COVID treatments.