New Delhi: The Government of Goa on Monday approved the use of "Ivermectin" - an orally-administered drug used to treat parasitic infections, for treatment of COVID-19 patients over the age of 18.
Health Minister Vishwajit Rane said that the drug would be available at all health centres, and asked all those eligible people to take the medication even if they had no symptoms of COVID. He called it a "prophylaxis treatment, as a preventive."
Rane said that patients will be treated with Ivermectin 12mg for a period of five days. Expert panels from the UK, Italy, Spain and Japan, found a large, statistically significant reduction in mortality, time to recovery and viral clearance in COVID-19 patients treated with Ivermectin.
On February 4, 2021, the German company that manufactures Ivermectin, Merck, said there is analysis that had identified no meaningful evidence for clinical activity or efficacy in patients with COVID-19 disease. The data available supports the safety and efficacy of Ivermectin beyond the doses and populations indicated in the regulatory agency.
Interestingly, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has already issued one warning about the general use of Ivermectin. That was back in March, when the global health body said there was "very low certainty of evidence" of the drug's effect on mortality or hospital admission.
WHO's chief scientist, Dr Soumya Swaminathan, tweeted on Tuesday morning, "Safety and efficacy are important when using any drug for a new indication. WHO recommends against use of 'ivermectin' for COVID-19 except within clinical trials."
Both the United States' FDA and the European Medical Agency have advised against the use of 'Ivermectin' to treat COVID patients at this stage. "The FDA has not approved ivermectin for use in treating or preventing COVID-19 in humans. Ivermectin tablets are approved at very specific doses for some parasitic worms, and there are topical (on the skin) formulations for head lice and skin conditions like rosacea," the FDA said.
As India is suffering from one of the worst outbreaks in the world, reported nearly 370,000 fresh infections and more than 3,700 new deaths on Monday, WHO said that a COVID-19 variant spreading in India, which is facing an explosive outbreak, appears to be more contagious and has been classified as a "being of concern."