Corrected entry: Higher ivermectin dose, longer duration still ineffective for COVID, new trial

Higher ivermectin dose, longer duration still futile for COVID, trial finds CIDRAP

A randomized, controlled trial (RCT) shows that even at a higher dose and longer treatment duration, the antimalarial drug ivermectin didn't shorten the time to a sustained recovery from COVID-19.

In the double-blind trial, published yesterday in JAMA, a team led by Duke University researchers evaluated time to sustained recovery among 1,206 COVID-19 patients at 93 US sites from Feb 16 to Jul 22, 2022, with follow-up until Nov 10, 2022. Sustained recovery was considered at least 3 days without symptoms.

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Despite the lack of efficacy in randomized, controlled trials, media reports and clinical experience suggests that some healthcare providers in the United States and abroad still prescribe ivermectin for their COVID-19 patients, according to an editor's note by Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, PhD, MD, and Preeti Malani, MD, JAMA editor-in-chief and deputy editor, respectively.

The continued practice, they wrote, is "fueled in part by real or perceived lack of access to effective therapies, continued confusion or misinformation, and active disinformation about ivermectin's efficacy, including by physicians. More must be done in partnership with others to address the misinformation that continues as we embark on the fourth year of the COVID-19 pandemic."