The US is under a new layer of deadly coronavirus and almost all states are reporting a high increase in new COVID-19 cases every day. In Bexar County, a doctor from San Antonio is reportedly using a head lice medicine to treat his COVID-19 patients, saving them from high complications that typically require hospitalization. According to Dr. Hoan Pho, using this medicine hinders coronavirus replication and also decreases the overall viral load inside the body, hence saving the patient from the intensive care unit.
This head lice medicine using in COVID-19 treatment is Ivermectin which is generally a safe medicine for humans. It is helpful against a number of parasitic diseases in both animals and humans and lice is only one of them.
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The use of Ivermectin for treating COVID-19 cases is not approved by the FDA. But Dr. Hoan Pho is confident that this medicine, when combined with other medicines can save people from extreme complications and death. It is only effective on patients who have already contracted the virus and using it to prevent contracting the virus is highly unlikely.
Recently, the US Food and Drug Authority (FDA) has recognized the beneficial role of ‘ivermectin’ against coronavirus but only in lab settings. There is no drug testing, safety testing, or clinical trial which is why it has not received approval yet. Without studying all these, it is hard to say if this head lice medicine has any benefits for COVID-19 patients or not.
Dr. Hoan is hopeful that this treatment can save the lives of COVID-19 patients. He has expertise in internal medicine and came up with using ivermectin for coronavirus after going through a research study that implies that this parasitic killing medicine is able to kill coronavirus if used within 48 hours of contracting. But these results were based in a laboratory setting too.
According to dr. Hoan, this medicine works on the virus and stops its replication. The best part is that it is easily available and only costs $20. Its been one month that he has started using this medicine on COVID-19 patients and reports that using it on 50-60 patients has helped them from hospitalization.
None of these patients who were treated with ivermectin experienced COVID complications or required oxygen supply. Also, none of them was hospitalized and saved from pneumonia. All of these patients were at least 65 years or older and this age group is typically at a higher risk of COVID complications.
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Dr. Hoan suggests ivermectin should be used with some other medicines and dietary supplements. Although he has not given ivermectin only to any of these COVID-19 patients he is firm that this head lice medicine is what is helping them recover.
He understands that there is limited research on finding the potential of this medicine but he hopes that the federal agency investigates it and if proven, adds it into the standard treatment for COVID-19.
There are no side effects of ivermectin and in rare cases, some people are likely to experience a headache after using it, which goes away on its own.
