At a press conference on the 9th, the chairman of the Tokyo Medical Association, Haruo Ozaki, recommended the emergency use of drugs, mainly to lessen the severity of home caregivers in order to respond to the spread of the new coronavirus infection. He emphasized that antiparasitic drugs such as "ivermectin" should be administered to corona-infected persons, saying that they have been shown to be effective in preventing aggravation of the condition overseas.
In addition to ivermectin, he called for the government to approve the use of the steroidal anti-inflammatory drug dexamethasone. Mr. Ozaki said, "(Both) have few side effects. I would like the government to consider so that treatment can be performed at the level of a family doctor."
Both ivermectin and dexamethasone are prescribed domestically. However, it has not been approved as a treatment for corona. [Google Translate, slightly corrected by author]
The news last week that Ivermectin finally is going to get a rigorous study of its effectiveness against Coronavirus is a highly positive development. Because there is no big money to be made off of a generic drug, there’s no momentum for such studies in this country. Ivermectin is already so widely used that we have an excellent level of knowledge of its few downsides.
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