India's State of Uttar Pradesh: New Protocol Ivermectin to replace Hydroxychloroquine in treatment of Covid-19 patients

Indian Express via MSN ^ | 08/10/2020 | Maulshree Seth

[SeekAndFind]

The Uttar Pradesh government has decided to replace Hydroxychloroquine with Ivermectin for prevention and treatment of Covid-19.

An order specifying the dosage and use of Ivermectin for both prevention as well as treatment has been issued by Additional Chief Secretary (Health & Medicine) Amit Mohan Prasad to all the chief medical officers in the state.

Sources in the government said that the decision to replace Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) with Ivermectin was taken after encouraging results in Agra, where it was used on an experimental basis.

Sources said that the medicine proved even more effective in not only in the treatment of Covid-19 patients but also in preventing large scale infection among frontline health workers engaged in the treatment and handling of Covid-19 patients.

“There were a lot of issues with HCQ. Therefore, we have now been instructed to instead use Ivermectin as per the prescribed doses. We will start distribution of the medicine among frontline health workers and also during contact tracing from Saturday onwards,” said Lucknow Chief Medical Officer Dr RP Singh.

The decision and the dosage protocol of the drug were finalised at a meeting of medical experts chaired by Director General Medical and Health on August 4.

For Covid patients, Ivermectin along with Doxycyclin has been prescribed.

For healthcare workers, it has been suggested to give Ivermectin dose on first, seventh and 30th day and then once a month.

However, as a caution, Ivermectin has not been advised for pregnant women or children below two years, just like Doxycyclin. Ivermectin is a broad-spectrum drug with potentials effects to treat a range of diseases, with its antimicrobial, antiviral, and anti-cancer properties, according to Nature.

[SeekAndFind]

I think the point of this article is that there are more than one safe, cheap, effective treatments in existence against CoVid-19 now.

Hydroxychloroquine is but one of them. Ivermectin is another. Let’s use the best weapons in our arsenal to fight this horrible disease.

What we need to do is get bureaucrats in government out of the way and let the frontline doctors do what they believe is best for patients based on what they observed.

[Svartalfiar]

What’s so hard about dividing by 10???

You ever try cutting your pills in half? That's hard enough as it is. Now try cutting one into tenths!

[BobL]

LOL. Actually this is a paste. My plan is to weigh it. As to cutting pills in half, look up pill splitter on Amazon - they work great.

[Svartalfiar]

Exactly what were the issues??

Hundreds of thousands living in the Indian slums were saved, w/HCQ.

WHAT WERE THE MANY ISSUES?

Quinine is easy to overdose on, and there are some people who are very sensitive to it. It also is bad if you have certain other medical conditions (relatively rare ones though).

Ivermectin is decently safer, and only really reacts badly with I believe Warfarin and Spinosad. But, like someone else mentioned, the biggest issue with it is Trump's support of it, although I highly doubt that factors much into provincial Indian politicians' public statements.

[politicianslie]

That’s about the scope of it.....the MILLIONS of ‘issues’ were that Trump mentioned it.

I can't think of a bigger advantage.

Trump supporters will GLADLY take it as they are bright enough to look at evidence that shows it works.

Leftists will typically NOT use HCQ as they get their medical advice from CNN and other fake news sources.

Like natural selection, less liberals will make the US a better place.

FRONTLINE Drs tell even the dumbest that HCQ is an effective CURE for the China virus

[Jane Long]

Yep...agree.

I’m wondering who (pun intended) got to this health director.

As poor as India is...they had to find/come up with an inexpensive replacement/alternate treatment.

Just replace HCQ, cures be darned.

:-(

[Jane Long]

HCQ does NOT have the side effects that Quinine does.

HCQ has been proven to be one of the safest drugs, ever, for decades.

[old-ager]

Cheap and safe. Doomed.

[old-ager]

Dissolve into water. Divide that.

[GaryCrow]

Ivermectin is a horse/cattle/swine de-wormer sold in farm supply stores and co-ops here in Mississippi. It doesn't require a veterinarian prescription here. It does come in a paste but the preferred way is in liquid form in a 500ml bottle that sold for about $35 the last time I bought it.

It has been used for many, many years as an off label dog de-wormer. It's the same drug as heartgard heartworm preventative that many people give their dogs, the heartgard just costs about 100X more than buying the raw drug from the co-op. The liquid Ivermectin is made to be injectable but it works well if given orally also. The standard ratio for dogs is .1 ml per every 10 lbs. of body weight every month. For example if you dog weighed 50 lbs. you'd give him .5 ml as a dosage every month. It'll prevent stomach worms and heartworms. It's an off label use, but every guy living in the country with a bunch of dogs knows about it. The veterinarians will tell you to use it off the record because it isn't an "approved" usage and the veterinary drug makers want to sell you the expensive canine version, they don't want you buying the livestock version which cuts mightily into their profits. If you've got several large dogs treating them with heartgard every month gets very expensive while Ivermectin will do the same thing for just pennies.

I've got no idea if it works for COVID-19, but it's a cheap, readily available drug that's been around for a long time and is mainstay drug in the veterinary community.

[Celerity]

After work yesterday I came home and my living room was in a state of utar pradesh.

Smelled sumthin fierce

[Svartalfiar]

HCQ does NOT have the side effects that Quinine does.

HCQ has been proven to be one of the safest drugs, ever, for decades.

But what makes HCQ safer than plain quinine? I don't really know much difference between them, I just drink my gin n tonics. With home steeped tonic syrup. Delicious.