So, I found myself curious about Ivermectin, the drug that supposedly can help fight COVID-19.
From Newsweek:
Researchers at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia have discovered that the antiparasitic drug Ivermectin can inhibit replication of SARS-CoV-2, the virus the causes COVID-19, according to a study published Friday in the journal Antiviral Research.
"Ivermectin is very widely used and seen as a safe drug. We need to figure out now whether the dosage you can use it at in humans will be effective—that's the next step," said the study's leader Dr. Kylie Wagstaff in a statement.
"We found that even a single dose could essentially remove all viral RNA by 48 hours and that even at 24 hours there was a really significant reduction in it," she added.
The exact manner in which the drug is able to kill the virus is not yet known, although Wagstaff said it was likely done by "dampening down" the ability of host cells to clear the drug.
From a 2017 entry in The Journal of Antibiotics:
Ivermectin: enigmatic multifaceted ‘wonder’ drug continues to surprise and exceed expectations
Abstract
Over the past decade, the global scientific community have begun to recognize the unmatched value of an extraordinary drug, ivermectin, that originates from a single microbe unearthed from soil in Japan. Work on ivermectin has seen its discoverer, Satoshi Ōmura, of Tokyo’s prestigious Kitasato Institute, receive the 2014 Gairdner Global Health Award and the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, which he shared with a collaborating partner in the discovery and development of the drug, William Campbell of Merck & Co. Incorporated. Today, ivermectin is continuing to surprise and excite scientists, offering more and more promise to help improve global public health by treating a diverse range of diseases, with its unexpected potential as an antibacterial, antiviral and anti-cancer agent being particularly extraordinary.
Introduction
The unique and extraordinary microorganism that produces the avermectins (from which ivermectin is derived) was discovered by Ōmura in 1973 (Figure 1). It was sent to Merck laboratories to be run through a specialized screen for anthelmintics in 1974 and the avermectins were found and named in 1975. The safer and more effective derivative, ivermectin, was subsequently commercialized, entering the veterinary, agricultural and aquaculture markets in 1981. The drug’s potential in human health was confirmed a few years later and it was registered in 1987 and immediately provided free of charge (branded as Mectizan)—‘as much as needed for as long as needed’—with the goal of helping to control Onchocerciasis (also known as River Blindness) among poverty-stricken populations throughout the tropics. Uses of donated ivermectin to tackle other so-called ‘neglected tropical diseases’ soon followed, while commercially available products were introduced for the treatment of other human diseases.
Many excellent, eloquent and comprehensive reviews covering the discovery, advent, development, manufacture and distribution of ivermectin have been published by those intimately involved with the various stages.1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 It would be folly to replicate those here. Instead, it is the current status, beneficial global health impact and exciting future potential that ivermectin has to offer to human health worldwide that will be the focus of attention.
Today, ivermectin remains a relatively unknown drug, although few, if any, other drugs can rival ivermectin for its beneficial impact on human health and welfare. Ivermectin is a broad-spectrum anti-parasitic agent, primarily deployed to combat parasitic worms in veterinary and human medicine. This unprecedented compound has mainly been used in humans as an oral medication for treating filarial diseases but is also effective against other worm-related infections and diseases, plus several parasite-induced epidermal parasitic skin diseases, as well as insect infestations. It is approved for human use in several countries, ostensibly to treat Onchocerciasis, lymphatic filariasis (also known as Elephantiasis), strongyloidiasis and/or scabies and, very recently, to combat head lice. However, health workers are increasingly utilizing it in an unsanctioned manner to treat a diverse range of other diseases, as shown in Appendix 1.
The past: unmatched successes
Perhaps more than any other drug, ivermectin is a drug for the world’s poor. For most of this century, some 250 million people have been taking it annually to combat two of the world’s most devastating, disfiguring, debilitating and stigma-inducing diseases, Onchocerciasis and Lymphatic filariasis. Most of the recipients live in remote, rural, desperately under-resourced communities in developing countries and have virtually no access to even the most rudimentary of medical interventions. Moreover, all the treatments have been made available free of charge thanks to the unprecedented drug donation program.
When the avermectins were discovered, they represented a completely new class of compounds, 'endectocides', so designated because they killed a diverse range of disease-causing organisms—as well as pathogen vectors—inside as well as outside the body. The first publications on avermectin appeared in 1979, describing it as a complex mixture of 16-membered macrocyclic lactones produced by fermentation of the actinomycete Streptomyces avermitilis—later re-classified as S. avermectinius (Figure 2). The avermectin family displayed extraordinarily potent anthelmintic properties.15, 16, 17 Ivermectin is a safer, more potent semisynthetic mixture of two chemically modified avermectins, comprising 80% of 22,23-dihydroavermectin-B1a and 20% 22,23-dihydroavermectin-B1b (Figure 3).
As a further indication of the increasing attention being paid to ivermectin, in 2013, Chinese scientists applied for an international patent ‘Use of ivermectin and derivatives thereof’ (Publication No.: WO/2014/059797) for new uses in the ‘development and manufacture of medicaments for human use in treating metabolic related diseases, such as hyperglycemia, insulin resistance, hypertriglyceridemia, hypercholesterolemia, diabetes, obesity and so on, and Famesoid X receptor-mediated diseases, such as cholestasia, gallstones, non-alcohol fatty liver disease, atherosclerosis, inflammation and cancer’.
Essentially, a unique, multifaceted ‘wonder’ drug of the past and present may yet become an even more exceptional drug of the future.
Much more at linkfwiw, you can apparently buy this stuff on eBay, either as veterinary medicine or as pharmaceutical tablets from China.
I have ordered this for the hell of it:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Kikiriki-60-pills-Dewormer-control-and-treatment-of-external-parasites/254512277504?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649My research says that each tablet contains:
500mcg Ivermectin
30mg Fenbendazol (dog dewormer that has gained a cult following as a human cancer bure)
50mg Praziquantel (another 'dewormer' that has been shown to be safe for humans)
I just figure it can't hurt to have some on hand...from what I gather these are relatively low concentrations of drugs shown to be safe for human consumption.
Now I don't think I've gone anywhere for well over a week. If any kind of online delivery actually works (we have an Instacart time slot for next Tuesday), that track record will continue for a while. If not, I'll make the occasional rare grocery trip during senior hour.
When will we see this go down?