COVID-19 cure in sight? Bangladeshi doctors claim Ivermectin with Doxycycline can treat coronavirus patients

Representational Image: Reuters

New Delhi: Doctors and scientists from across the world are striving hard to find medicine for coronavirus. Currently, over 100 research groups are busy in researches against this deadly virus. Some vaccine companies have also achieved initial lead but they will take at least two years to achieve the final success. 

Even if scientists are able to make a vaccine for coronavirus in the next few months, it will take a lot of time to reach 750 crore people of the world. In such a situation, doctors around the world are trying a few already available medicines on COVID-19 patients and some of these drugs have shown results.

In Bangladesh, a team of medical doctors reportedly had “astounding” success in treating patients suffering from COVID-19 with two commonly used drugs, Doxycycline and Ivermectin. Dr Tarek Alam from the Bangladesh Medical College Hospital, and one of the senior members of the team, reportedly stated that a combination of the two drugs were administered to 60 patients, all of whom experienced full recoveries within four days. 

The patients were stated to have been suffering from respiratory problems, as well as other symptoms of SARS-CoV-2. Dr Alam along with the team is stated to be preparing a scientific paper discussing the effectiveness of the treatment to be published for peer-review.

Dr Alam has reportedly stated that antiprotozoal medicine called Ivermectin in a single dose with Doxycycline, an antibiotic, yielded the near-miraculous result in curing COVID-19 patients. He further stated that his team was prescribing the two medicines only for coronavirus patients, most of them initially reporting with respiratory problems with related complaints, later to be tested COVID-19 positive.

Ivermectin sticks to the parasite present in the body and the parasite is not able to excrete its larvae in the body, and thus is killed by this drug. Even in India, the drug is being used in some states on coronavirus patients and doctors are hopeful that this easily available medicine would prove an effective weapon in the fight against coronavirus. 

This is too early to come to a conclusion, but to get answers on why the world is looking at this medicine with great hope, Zee Media spoke to medical experts.

Dr Aarti Lal Chandani, Principal of Kanpur Medical College, told Zee Media "Ivermectin is a drug that is part of the World Health Organization's deworming programme, and is considered safe in the WHO's Safety List. It is also used as a de-worming tablet and is used to treat coronavirus patients. Many Indian hospitals in Kerala, Uttar Pradesh's Kanpur and Delhi are also trying this medicine on COVID-19 patients."

According to Health expert Dr Kaushal Kant Mishra, studies conducted at Monash University Australia and the Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Lab found that Ivermectin eradicated the coronavirus within 48 hours. The study also found that the use of the drug also weakened the RNA of coronavirus by almost 93 per cent. Although the drug was not tried on humans in the study, the same was done by doctors of a private hospital in Bangladesh. 

Doctors of a private hospital in Bangladesh gave Ivermectin as well as an antibiotic drug Doxycycline to 60 coronavirus patients and after 72 hours, they found that all the patients were COVID-19 negative, said Dr KK Mishra.

Ivermectin is considered an antimicrobial drug to increase immunity. If it proves effective in the treatment of coronavirus, it would certainly become a miracle drug, but for that a major trial is needed. Above all, the drug has shown a ray of hope to the global medical fraternity in the fight against the deadly virus.