The Czech Republic cannot get the difficult corona situation under control - and is relying on a polarizing drug against Covid-19.
The expert opinions on this vary widely.
Coronavirus pandemic: The Czech Republic is badly shaken by corona mutations.
The government is relying on a controversial drug in the fight against Covid-19.
Even the manufacturer distances itself from the alleged Corona miracle cure.
Munich / Prague
- If you stick with the imagery, you could say that there is a lot of squinting from Bavaria and Saxony across the border to the Czech Republic.
There, the coronavirus mutants, above all the British variant B.1.1.7, caused the numbers of Covid 19 cases to explode.
At the end of February, according to
Johns Hopkins University,
the
Czech Republic was
the country with the highest 7-day incidence in the world - with a value of 765. What to do?
In this explosive situation, the German neighbor is relying on an alleged Corona miracle drug that is not undisputed among medical experts.
The name of the drug: ivermectin.
The
MDR
reports on this
.
Coronavirus pandemic: The Czech Republic is badly shaken by corona mutations
A review: As the
Deutsche Apotheker Zeitung
writes, Australian scientists had already observed in the spring of 2020 that the anti-parasitic agent almost completely switched off the SARS-CoV-2 pathogen within 48 hours in a laboratory test.
The drug is actually used against roundworms in dogs and horses.
The hype initially flattened, also because the manufacturer spoke out against its use in corona infections.
Nevertheless, the Czech Republic is now relying heavily on ivermectin.
“We will not wait for clinical studies, we will try to apply it,” Prime Minister Andrej Babiš declared at the beginning of March.
According to the
MDR,
the drug Humevec, which is based on ivermectin, was approved for a limited time.
Ivermectin against Corona?
Opinions on how to alleviate Covid-19 vary widely
The St. Anna Hospital in Brno immediately started a kind of field test, a first clinical study, so to speak.
Specifically: Ivermectin was administered to 70 patients.
"The health of the majority of patients improved so significantly after taking ivermectin and in combination with other therapeutic methods that they could be discharged home,"
MDR
quotes
Michal Rezek, a doctor from Brno.
But there was also considerable criticism from expert circles: “The concentration of the agent, which could slow down an infection, is a hundred times higher than that which is permitted for humans.
So it could have very negative side effects, ”said Czech health expert Jakub Hlávka from the
University of Southern California
.
Corona drug?
US intensive care physicians promote ivermectin
Nevertheless: An alliance of intensive care physicians is also strongly promoting the use of ivermectin against Covid-19 in the USA: the so-called
Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance (FLCCC)
.
According to the
Deutscher Apotheker Zeitung,
this association of medical
professionals
analyzed
24 studies with almost 4,000 patients on the effects of ivermectin.
The results of the FLCCC: Ivermectin could significantly reduce the viral load, the development of Covid-19 will be contained in those who are already infected and the recovery of patients with moderately severe disease will be accelerated.
Miracle cure or exaggerated expectations?
The analyzes of ivermectin are picking up speed - especially in the hard-hit Czech Republic, which is desperately looking for solutions.
(pm)