PETALING JAYA: A doctor who had his clinic raided by authorities for supplying Ivermectin to his patients said the health ministry’s study on the drug could not make any conclusions on its efficacy for prevention and early treatment.
Earlier today, health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the ministry did not recommend using Ivermectin to treat Covid-19 patients, following its Ivermectin treatment effectiveness test (I-tech study) on high-risk patients.
But Dr Amir Farid Isahak said the study only focused on hospitalised patients.
“Patients do not get hospitalised unless their condition was severe, especially in a situation when hospitals were running short on beds.
“So this study was not on mild or early-stage cases,” he told FMT.
Amir said based on 65 studies analysed at ivmmeta.com, Ivermectin is “most useful” for prevention or prophylaxis, “less useful” when it came to early treatment, and “least useful” for late treatment.
“The studies compiled in ivmmeta.com collectively showed that Ivermectin is much less effective, or not effective at all according to I-tech and some other studies, in the more advanced stages of the disease,” he added.
“The health ministry’s study cannot make any conclusions on the efficacy of Ivermectin as prevention and early treatment for Stage 1 and mild Stage 2 Covid-19 cases.”
Stage 1 displays no symptoms, while Stage 2 displays symptoms without having pneumonia. These other symptoms may be mild, moderate or severe.
“So this study does not change our perspective about Ivermectin for prophylaxis and early treatment.”
In his statement, Noor Hisham said the I-tech study found that Ivermectin yielded no significant differences in ICU admissions, mechanical ventilation, symptom recovery, blood parameters and chest X-ray resolution.
The main aim of the I-tech study, he said, was to see if Ivermectin administered during the first week of illness prevented deterioration to Stage 4 or 5 among hospitalised patients aged 50 and above with at least one comorbidity.
It found that patients in both groups had a similar rate of progression to severe Covid-19 symptoms.
Noor Hisham reiterated that the ministry’s findings were supported by other recent large studies conducted in Argentina and Brazil, and warned medical practitioners against recommending, illegally advertising or selling Ivermectin to treat Covid-19.
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