Gustavo Laurnagaray
01/25/2021 1:43 PM
Clarín.com
Society
Updated 01/25/2021 1:43 PM
The province of La Pampa will also use
ivermectin
for positive Covid treatments.
It will do so from next Thursday in patients diagnosed early, despite the fact that the National Administration of Medicines, Food and Medical Technology (ANMAT) has not yet authorized the indication of this antiparasitic for cases of coronavirus.
Although in Argentina doses of 0.2 to 0.4 milligrams per kilo of the treated person were applied with that indication, the Pampean Minister of Health, Mario Kohan, highlighted the results of the application of a dose of 9.6 milligrams used in Australia, the country that has been applying the drug since March.
La Pampa acquired 1,500 treatments that will be used in patients diagnosed early.
The treatment
generates controversy
: more and more provinces authorize its use despite the fact that it was not approved by the ANMAT and that the Argentine Society of Infectology (SADI) questioned it.
It has already been approved by Misiones, Salta, Tucumán and Corrientes.
"We are going to use ivermectin as convalescent plasma or as equine serum. It will be presented soon to ANMAT", explained the minister of Kohan when announcing the treatment.
Kohan assured that the WHO now considers ivermectin in the same status as equine serum and that under these conditions they will apply it: "We are going to use it under the WHO regime, which said that in the context of a pandemic health teams can use novel resources and reposition drugs that may be effective. "
Kohan clarified that the ivermectin used to treat Covid patients
is not the same as that obtained in veterinary medicine
.
"We have to discourage the consumption of these types of drugs," the Pampean minister remarked.
"We are going to distribute it, we are going to develop a strategy in the next few days, because the secret is to take it as quickly as possible. The comparative advantage is that
we have very fast diagnoses
," Kohan said.
The Pampean minister highlighted the ivermectin treatment applied in Australia.
"Ivermectin in Argentina is used in doses of 0.2 to 0.4 milligram per kilogram of weight to treat patients. The work that marked a change in the view of ivermectin to use it as an antiviral is a study in Australia , in March, where they showed that cells infected by the coronavirus, using in doses equivalent to 0.6 milligram per kilo of weight,
makes it decrease and disappear in 48 hours
. But that is an in vitro study, "he explained.
He also cited
an Argentine study on 45 patients
.
"The ability to cause clearance in Covid infected patients was investigated. With that dose for five days, it effectively showed
clearance of the viral load
, it totally decreased it," he said.
This is the study carried out by a team led by Alejandro Krolewiecki, from the Tropical Diseases Research Institute of the National University of Salta (IIET-UNSa), a professional who advises the province of La Pampa.
The Pampean health authorities said the drug is safe.
"We know that it does not harm. There is one piece of information that shocked me. The trend is very strong towards generating benefits. There are no controlled studies yet to close this research. I was concerned about safety. But there are already a huge number of publications that it shows that at the doses we propose
there is no toxicity and the side effects are minimal, "he
said.
Once the Covid is diagnosed, Kohan explained, the patient will be treated (with prior informed consent) with ivermectin in the first five days.
The drug was purchased from the ELEA-Phoenix SA laboratory, which is one of the four that manufactures and markets the drug in the country.
The Argentine Society of Infectology - several of whose members advise the national government - issued a rejection of the use of ivermectin.
"Until now, the scientific evidence in progress evaluating the use of ivermectin alone or in combination with other drugs for the prevention and / or treatment of SARS-Cov2 infection
is of very low quality and no clear clinical efficacy data has been reported
" said the entity.
"As long as there is no higher quality evidence, SADI recommends that
ivermectin not be used for the treatment and / or prophylaxis
of SARS-CoV2 outside of well-designed, duly registered studies that are ethically acceptable," he remarked.
The Pampa. Correspondent
ACE
Look also
Although the ANMAT has not yet approved it, the use of Ivermectin to treat coronavirus cases is extended
Agribusiness and the responses of Argentine science against the coronavirus