COVID-19: Africa CDC advises against use of Ivermectin

The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) has advised African countries against the use of Ivermectin for treating COVID-19.

“Member States are advised against the use of Ivermectin for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19 because there is no conclusive clinical data to support its safety and efficacy. The public is advised to adhere to country-specific guidelines for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19,” it said in a statement on Wednesday.

According to the Africa CDC, there is no scientific evidence from pre-clinical studies on the therapeutic effect of Ivermectin for the management of COVID-19; no evidence of its clinical efficacy for the management of patients with asymptomatic, mild, moderate or severe COVID-19; and no safety data regarding the use of Ivermectin for COVID-19 in the majority of the published studies.

However, it stated that “while there are some studies that suggest potential effectiveness of Ivermectin in the prevention and management of COVID-19, existing data has limitations.”

“These limitations include: most of the studies had small numbers of participants; the doses and schedules of Ivermectin administration varied; some patients taking Ivermectin were also on other medications during study; many of the studies did not clearly describe the severity of COVID-19; some of the randomized controlled trials were open-label studies.

“Although Ivermectin inhibits the replication of SARS-CoV-2 in laboratory studies, the doses used in the laboratory to produce those results are 100-fold higher than those approved for use in humans,” adding that data from well-designed, randomized, controlled clinical trials are needed to provide evidence for decision on the efficacy of Ivermectin for preventing and treating COVID-19.”

The centre said it will continue to monitor emerging evidence on the safety and efficacy of Ivermectin for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19 and provide update.

Ivermectin was very famous in the treatment of river blindness and used in treating parasitic infections such as scabies. Some scientists have said it also has antiviral components which stops the SARS-COV2 from duplicating itself in the human body.

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There has been an exponential increase in the consumption of this drug which in turn led to an increase in the price of the drug as well as subtle scarcity.

Also, a team at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) carried out a study on the use of Ivermectin in COVID-19 treatment. Findings of the study were recently shared with Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.

The study proposed that “Ivermectin should be considered for adoption into the uniform treatment guidelines of COVID-19 in Nigeria,” noting the “potential use of Ivermectin as prophylaxis pending the rollout of vaccination programmes or alongside it.”

However, the study emphasised that Ivermectin “is not meant to replace other COVID-19 measures such as social distancing, face masking and hygiene, or vaccinations,” adding that, “It is possibly an additional tool which can be deployed to fight the pandemic,” PREMIUM TIMES reported.

Over 3.8 million COVID-19 cases have been confirmed on the African continent with more than 3.3 million recoveries & 100,000 deaths recorded.