5 ms·

Also a dirt cheap medicine, so would be great news if it ended up being effective.

tialaramex 7y ago
I'm not sure though which would be weirder: That this very widely used drug is actually effective against coronaviruses and we never noticed before. OR That this drug isn't effective against other coronaviruses but just this one specifically. Ivermectin is a worm treatment. A variety of human diseases (and some non-human diseases) that involve parasitic worms can be treated with this relatively cheaply (but not Guinea Worm interestingly). It's basically poison for the worms but mammals mostly seem to tolerate it very well. Because it's so cheap it's a go to option even in cases where maybe another drug would be better if money was no object. So it'd be weird if we never noticed it cures the common cold for example. When its given out as a mass intervention in places that have endemic worm infection, the population report the expected upsides like they feel healthier or they have better sex (likely placebo effect) plus some things connected to worms (it cures other worm infections they had, because the drug doesn't care which worms you were targeting) but we don't get people saying "Oh my cough cleared up" or "That's weird, now I don't have a fever" in data I've looked at. Now if it doesn't work on other viruses from this family but it does work on this one that's one hell of a coincidence. Maybe I'm missing something, it could be that over in some corner of the world they've found that this drug has some very particular effect that exactly matches what you'd want from something to treat COVID-19, but otherwise this is a pretty crazy thing to find.
- rpiguy 7y ago
  Actually Ivermectin has been studied for use on viruses for years and generally found effective. Most recently it was identified as successful treatment for Dengue Fever. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30452439 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30452439 I suspect it isn't touted as a cure for the common cold because the common cold is rarely severe enough to merit prescription drugs. This blurb from drugs.com gives a very high-level overview of how it theoretically works: To get into the nucleus the viral proteins need to bind a cargo transporter which lets them in. Ivermectin can block the cargo transporter, so the viral proteins can’t get into the nucleus. This is how the scientists believe Ivermectin works against SARS-CoV-2 virus.

I'm not sure though which would be weirder: That this very widely used drug is actually effective against coronaviruses and we never noticed before. OR That this drug isn't effective against other coronaviruses but just this one specifically. Ivermectin is a worm treatment. A variety of human diseases (and some non-human diseases) that involve parasitic worms can be treated with this relatively cheaply (but not Guinea Worm interestingly). It's basically poison for the worms but mammals mostly seem to tolerate it very well. Because it's so cheap it's a go to option even in cases where maybe another drug would be better if money was no object. So it'd be weird if we never noticed it cures the common cold for example. When its given out as a mass intervention in places that have endemic worm infection, the population report the expected upsides like they feel healthier or they have better sex (likely placebo effect) plus some things connected to worms (it cures other worm infections they had, because the drug doesn't care which worms you were targeting) but we don't get people saying "Oh my cough cleared up" or "That's weird, now I don't have a fever" in data I've looked at. Now if it doesn't work on other viruses from this family but it does work on this one that's one hell of a coincidence. Maybe I'm missing something, it could be that over in some corner of the world they've found that this drug has some very particular effect that exactly matches what you'd want from something to treat COVID-19, but otherwise this is a pretty crazy thing to find.

rpiguy 7y ago
Actually Ivermectin has been studied for use on viruses for years and generally found effective. Most recently it was identified as successful treatment for Dengue Fever. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30452439 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30452439 I suspect it isn't touted as a cure for the common cold because the common cold is rarely severe enough to merit prescription drugs. This blurb from drugs.com gives a very high-level overview of how it theoretically works: To get into the nucleus the viral proteins need to bind a cargo transporter which lets them in. Ivermectin can block the cargo transporter, so the viral proteins can’t get into the nucleus. This is how the scientists believe Ivermectin works against SARS-CoV-2 virus.