Japan's Kowa says ivermectin has 'antiviral effect' on Covid-19 | Hacker News Reader

Japan's Kowa says ivermectin has 'antiviral effect' on Covid-19

ca.news.yahoo.com

15 pointsrubatuga12 comments

Kowa's press release on ivermectin in full for reference as Reuters failed to link it in their article.

Original - Only accessible from Japanese IPs (VPN): https://kowa.co.jp/news/2022/press220131.pdf

English - Auto-translated version: https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/read/66304644/press220131-...

The article doesn't really provide any details, how much of an effect would be nice to know, and it's non-clinical research, but what happens if this research turns out to be correct and ivermectin turns out to be a clinically significant intervention?

Beyond some awkward silence I can't imagine it will change much. The side effects of ivermectin don't sound particularly nice [0]: - anaemia - coma - confusion - conjunctival haemorrhage - difficulty standing - difficulty walking - encephalopathy - faecal incontinence

although if it was you're only chance of survival the side effects might not matter, but with the new COVID drugs that, at least in developed countries, is no longer the case.

Is there are any issues with mass use of ivermectin, something akin to antibiotic resistance?

[0] https://bnf.nice.org.uk/drug/ivermectin.html#sideEffects

Scientists are not sure whether those side-effects come from the dying parasites or the ivermectin itself:

"Ivermectin is well tolerated compared to other microfilaricidal agents (i.e., thiabendazole, diethylcarbamazine). Adverse reactions (i.e., pruritus, fever, rash, myalgia, headache) occur commonly during the first 3 days after treatment and appear to be related to the extent of parasitic infection and systemic mobilization and killing of microfilariae. The majority of reactions can usually be treated with aspirin, acetaminophen and/or antihistamines. Adverse effects tend to occur with lesser frequency during periods of retreatment." Source: https://www.drugs.com/sfx/ivermectin-side-effects.html

If you read this list of side-effects, Aspirin also looks as scary as ivermectin: https://www.drugs.com/sfx/acetylsalicylic-acid-side-effects....

BTW: "BNF is only available in the UK

The NICE British National Formulary (BNF) site is only available to users in the UK, Crown Dependencies and British Overseas Territories."

I am not sure how people do not have even slightest intuition about overdosing something. There are quite strict limits to everyday over the counter medicine. For example you should not take more than 1000 mg of paracetamol at time and not more than 4000 mg a day. Would the same people who think that it is normal to take 5 times in a row the dosage that is mostly prescribed for several months also take 20000 mg of paracetamol when somebody claims that it will cure covid?

Lots of things show antiviral action when tested in vitro --- in a petri dish.

For example, battery acid. This doesn't mean it can be applied to good effect in vivo --- inside a human body without drastic, undesirable side effects --- such as death.

We already know ivermectin is safe in the human body, since it's already approved for use in humans to treat other things.

It's correct to say it's been approved, but calling it "safe" is a bit strong. It has a lot of potential (common) side effects and it's really more of a drug of last resort or to treat something that isn't a human. If you take large overdoses, it can be toxic.

Yes, it is safe --- in doses needed to kill worms in your intestinal tract.

Is it safe in doses needed to kill COVID? I have yet to see a reputable, supervised medical study that shows this. The studies that exist are mostly testimonials from individual doctors in 3rd world countries.

Japan discovered Ivermectin and are it's biggest fan but even they haven't approved it as a COVID treatment.

A double-blind phase III clinical study is far from "in vitro".

This isn’t one: the Reuters reporter got confused — the press release mentioned that it still shows an effect in vitro (which we’ve known for a long time, along with many other drugs which haven’t shown beneficial effects in actual patients), and also mentioned the phase III clinical trial which is still ongoing. The reporter wrote the first version of that story conflating the two but there’s really not much here.

Show us the publication in a mainstream journal so scientists can evaluate whether this statement can be made with confidence.

Obligatory xkcd: https://xkcd.com/1217

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