Goa clears new COVID treatment scientists claim 'can end pandemic'

A new COVID-19 treatment protocol prescribing five tablets of antiparasitical ivermectin drug for all above 18 years, has been cleared by the Goa government on Monday.

Goa would be the first state in the country to endorse this new COVID-19 treatment protocol, revealed Health Minister Vishwajit Rane at a press meet. He told reporters that the ivermectin drug should be taken by all residents, even if they did not have COVID-19 symptoms, as a preventive. “We are giving this as a prophylaxis treatment, as a preventive,” he pointed out. It helps to bring down the high fever that accompanies the COVID-19 infection, he added.

Ivermectin tablets will be made available at all government health centres. The patients will be given the drug for five days.

Also read: COVID patients who took steroids should be aware of black fungus

According to Rane, expert panels in the UK, Italy, Spain and Japan had found a “large, statistically significant reduction in mortality, time to recovery and viral clearance in COVID-19 patients” treated with ivermectin. However, he added that it will not prevent anyone from contracting the coronavirus infection but the severity of the disease will be reduced.

Rane cautioned that people should not be then lulled into a false sense of security and complacency after taking the tablets and must continue to mandatorily take all the precautionary measures and scrupulously follow the SOPs.

A peer reviewed research journal, the American Journal of Therapeutics, had claimed a few days ago that the regular use of ivermectin can end COVID-19 pandemic since the drug can significantly reduce the risk of contracting the deadly respiratory disease.

The common anti-parasitic ivermectin is being touted as a miracle cure for COVID-19 by doctors and campaigners the world over, said a News18 report. The findings of this research has been reviewed by medical experts, which included three US government senior scientists. The research is reportedly the most comprehensive review of the available data taken from clinical, in vitro, animal, and real-world studies.

Also read: Current variant spreads rapidly, can breach vaccine: WHO chief scientist

According to media reports, a group of medical and scientific experts led by the Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance (FLCCC) had reviewed published peer-reviewed studies, manuscripts, expert meta-analyses, and epidemiological analyses of regions where ivermectin was distributed to conclude that this medicine “can end the pandemic”.

The research focussed on 27 controlled trials available in January 2021, 15 of which were randomised controlled trials (RCT’s). Also, they looked at several meta-analyses of ivermectin RCTs published by expert panels from the UK, Italy, Spain and Japan and they found that it reduced mortality, recovery time and cleared the viral, when COVID-19 patients were treated with ivermectin.

Hence, Paul Marik, ounding member of the FLCCC and from Virginia Medical School called all regional public health authorities and medical professionals around the world to include ivermectin in their standard of care so “we can end this pandemic once and for all”. South Africa, Zimbabwe, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Mexico, and India have approved the drug for use by medical professionals, said media reports.