Mymensingh Medical College Retrospective Study:
Ivermectin Superior to Standard of Care for COVID-19 Patients
Recently, a Japanese and Bangladeshi-led research team
completed a retrospective study involving 325 consecutive patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 at the COVID-19 treatment unit
at (MMCH), Mymensingh, Bangladesh from April to June 2020.The study’s results
were published online Sept. 24 in peer-reviewed Archivos de Bronconeumologia.With a total of 248 adult patients
infected with SARS-CoV2 free of any pathological conditions,115 of them received ivermectin plus standard of care
while 133 of the subjects only received standard of care.
The remaining patients,
77 in total who were under 18, were transferred from other facilities and received different care management approaches.The study team
compared both arms of this study including ivermectin (N=115) and standard of care (N=133) in terms of1) time to SARS-CoV-2 negativity,
2) disease progression (e.g. condition worsens from pneumonia to severe respiratory distress),
3) duration of hospital stay, and
4) mortality rate.The ivermectin treatment
produced no aberrant symptoms (e.g. adverse safety events).While none of the ivermectin patients showed progressive pathology (e.g. pneumonia or cardiovascular complications),
9.8% of the standard of care group developed pneumonia
1.5% had ischemic stroke.
While only
9.6% of the ivermectin group ultimately required oxygen inhalation,45.9% of the standard of care group fell in this category—a marked and material difference.
This observation：
held up for the development of respiratory distress as well (2.6% ivermectin vs. 15.8% standard of care group).
Moreover, of those patients needing antibiotic treatment,
superiority of ivermectin：
was clear with 15.7% of the ivermectin groups vs. 60.2% of the standard of care group.
Patients that were given ivermectin didn’t end up in the ICU nearly as much (0.9% ivermectin vs. 8.3% standard of care).
Finally,those patients in the ivermectin arm got better faster.
In a striking observation,those administered ivermectin
became COVID-19 negative in a median of 4 days vs. 15 days for the standard of care group, at 95% CL, 8.97-10.59,P.
Although the researchers acknowledge randomized, multicenter study could strengthen the evidence, they’re clear that ivermectin should be considered as a first-line therapy as part of a COVID-19 containment strategy.