World Health Organization says ivermectin only to be used to treat COVID-19 within clinical trials

By Rubén Morales Iglesias: The World Health Organization said, “The current evidence on the use of ivermectin to treat COVID-19 patients is inconclusive. Until more data is available, WHO recommends that the drug only be used within clinical trials.”

WHO said the recommendation, which applies to patients with COVID-19 of any disease severity, is now part of WHO’s guidelines on COVID-19 treatments.

Ivermectin, according to WHO, is a broad-spectrum anti-parasitic agent, included in WHO essential medicines list for several parasitic diseases and scabies.

WHO convened a guideline development group comprised of an international panel of experts to review the medicine after “increased international attention on ivermectin as a potential treatment for COVID-19.”

Medical Xpress said “Facebook posts and articles endorsing ivermectin have proliferated in Brazil, France, South Africa and South Korea as governments around the world struggle with vaccination programmes. The pandemic has prompted a surge in demand for the drug, particularly in Latin America.”

WHO said its group looked at data from 16 randomized controlled trials on 2,400 patients with COVID-19 who were given ivermectin or a placebo.

According to the WHO, the experts concluded that due to the small size of the trials and the methodological limitations, there was “very low certainty” that ivermectin reduces mortality, need for mechanical ventilation, need for hospital admission and time to clinical improvement in COVID-19 patients.

The panel did not look at the use of ivermectin to prevent COVID-19, which is outside of scope of the guidelines it was following.

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