March 31 (UPI) — Ivermectin does not reduce hospitalization in people with COVID-19, a large study of 3,515 patients in Brazil found.
The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine on Wednesday, concluded that giving ivermectin to patients with COVID-19 did not result in lower incidence of medical admission to a hospital or prolonged emergency department observation due to clinical worsening of COVID-19.
Out of 679 patients in the ivermectin group, 100 (14.7%) in the ivermectin group were hospitalized or had lengthy emergency department visits, compared with 111 (16.3%) in the placebo group.
The study also said there were no significant effects of ivermectin use on secondary outcomes, including duration of hospitalization, time to clinical recovery, death from any cause and mechanical ventilation.
Authors of the study said they did not find “a significantly or clinically meaningful lower risk of medical admission” for COVID-19 patients treated with ivermectin.
The ivermectin COVID-19 study also noted that, “A large collaboration of clinical trialists working on ivermectin treatment for COVID-19 has conducted a meta-analysis of trials and has concluded that ivermectin did not offer a treatment benefit when trials that were considered to be of moderate or better quality were examined.”
The 3,515 Brazilian patients in the study were randomly assigned to receive ivermectin, placebo or another intervention. The study was a randomized, placebo-controlled, adaptive platform trial in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil.
Median age of the patients was 49. Most of the patients were mixed race and 58.2% were women.
A Journal of the American Medical Association study in February found also found that ivermectin failed to prevent patients with mild to moderate COVID-19 from progressing to serious illness.
Ivermectin is a dewormer that was touted by celebrities and others as a treatment for COVID-19.
The World Health Organization has recommended against the use of ivermectin for treatment of patients with COVID-19.
“The findings in our trial are consistent with these conclusions,” the study authors wrote.
