A double-blind study of an antiparasitic drug that’s been in the news a lot lately not only shows that the drug can reduce the duration and infectiousness of COVID-19, but can do all that on less than $1 a day.
That drug is ivermectin, and professor Eli Schwartz, founder of the Center for Travel Medicine and Tropical Disease at Sheba, says his studies, recently published on RXiv, show it is a cost-effective treatment that can help shorten the infection period. Schwartz studied 89 volunteers diagnosed with the virus. Half received ivermectin; the other half, a placebo.
“Nearly 72% of volunteers treated with ivermectin tested negative for the virus by Day 6,” The Jerusalem Post reported. “In contrast, only 50% of those who received the placebo tested negative.” And, besides feeling better quicker, fewer ivermectin patients also were found to be infectious — 13%, compared to 50% of the placebo group.