PETALING JAYA: The health ministry does not recommend using Ivermectin to treat Covid-19 patients, following its Ivermectin treatment effectiveness test on high-risk Covid-19 patients (I-tech study).
In a statement, health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the study found that the drug 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 was to see if Ivermectin administered during the first week of illness prevented deterioration to Stage 4 or 5 among hospitalised patients aged 50 years and above with at least one comorbidity,” he said.
The study found that patients in both groups had a similar rate of progression to severe Covid-19 symptoms.
“For the same primary outcome, the mean time to progression was 3.0 days for the Ivermectin group compared to 2.9 days for the standard care group, but the difference was not statistically significant.
“Additionally, safety analysis found that three times more adverse events were reported in the Ivermectin group versus the standard care group, most commonly diarrhoea.
“Meanwhile, there was a trend of 28-day mortality reduction by Ivermectin with standard care, but not reaching statistical significance,” Noor Hisham said.
He reiterated that the ministry’s findings were supported by other recent large studies conducted in Argentina and Brazil, both of which also do not support the use of Ivermectin in clinical practice.
“The health ministry reiterates that Ivermectin is only used within clinical trials settings with monitoring,” he said.
Noor Hisham warned medical practitioners against recommending, illegally advertising or selling the drug to treat Covid-19.
“It is hoped that the findings of this local study can help inform medical practitioners in Malaysia and also the public, who often ask about the effectiveness of Ivermectin in the clinical practice of Covid-19 treatment,” he said.
The study involved 500 hospitalised patients in Stage 2 and 3 of Covid-19, involving a five-day course of the drug, compared to another group undergoing standard care. It involved 20 government hospitals and the low-risk quarantine and treatment centre at the Malaysia Agro Exposition Park Serdang.
Of the 500 subjects enrolled in the trial, four were excluded for failing to meet the study’s criteria while six withdrew, citing concerns over the drug’s potential side effects.
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