Clinical trials show that ivermectin, once touted by conservatives as a cure for Covid, does not greatly improve recovery.

Ivermectin, a drug once touted by conservatives as a cure for Covid-19, does not significantly improve recovery time in people with mild to moderate Covid-19, according to a large clinical trial published in a peer-reviewed journal.

People who took ivermectin were cured of Covid in 12 days, while people who did not take the drug recovered in 13 days.according to research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association on Friday. Ivermectin has been approved for the treatment of parasitic worms in humans, but it is primarily used to deworm horses.

“Among outpatients with mild to moderate COVID-19, treatment with ivermectin compared with placebo did not significantly improve time to recovery,” the Duke University School of Medicine team wrote. “These results do not support the use of ivermectin in patients with mild to moderate COVID-19,” they concluded.

Early in the pandemic, when there were few treatment options, ivermectin gained national fame when a couple groups of conservative doctors, including the Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance and America’s Frontline Doctors, have begun touting the drug on social media and elsewhere as a cure for Covid. But there was little evidence to support these claims, and a study by Dr. S. Pierre Corey, a Wisconsin critical care physician and president of the Critical Care Alliance, claims it was an effective treatment. was later recalled for being wrong date.

The latest trial involved 817 people who took ivermectin tablets for three days and compared them with 774 who took a placebo. Participants who took ivermectin received a daily dose based on their weight. Recovery from Covid was defined as three consecutive days without symptoms.

One person died in the ivermectin group, while no person who received placebo died. The number of hospitalized in each group was the same, nine people in each.

The study was conducted on 93 sites in the US from June 2021 to May 2022, when the delta variant dominated, and then the omicron variant.

The Food and Drug Administration has not approved ivermectin for the treatment or prevention of Covid and has repeatedly warned people against taking the drug for any purpose other than approved.

Public interest in ivermectin skyrocketed at the beginning of the pandemic, when a lab study showed the drug slowed the replication of the virus that causes Covid in a petri dish. But several trials have shown that ivermectin does not provide any meaningful benefit to Covid patients.

Study in the New England Journal of Medicine, published in Mayfound that ivermectin did not reduce the risk of hospitalization due to Covid.

Ivermectin is approved in the US in liquid or paste form for the treatment of parasites in animals. There is also a tablet version approved by the FDA for the treatment of parasitic worms, head lice, and certain skin conditions in humans.

“There is a lot of misinformation around and you may have heard that you can take large doses of ivermectin. This is not normal, ”the FDA website says, warning people about a possible overdose.

The drug regulator has also strongly warned people against taking ivermectin formulations intended for animals such as horses and cows.

“First, animal medicines are often highly concentrated because they are used on large animals such as horses and cows, which weigh much more than we do, up to a ton or more. Such high doses can be very toxic to humans.” says the FDA.