Ivermectin to be used for Covid treatment in UP, to replace hydroxychloroquine

NOIDA/GHAZIABAD: Uttar Pradesh government has approved the use of Ivermectin as a new medication for the treatment and prevention of Covid-19. The drug will replace hydroxychloroquine.

Health department officials involved with Covid-19 management said that Ivermectin is already being given to frontline health workers.

The additional chief secretary of the health department on Thursday directed all chief medical officers to start giving doses of the medicine to individuals being treated for Covid-19, their primary contacts as well as to health workers deputed in Covid care centres.

Defining the prophylaxis procedure, usage of Ivermectin has been approved as a preventive healthcare method. Those who test positive, have to be administered 12 mg Ivermectin daily for three days after dinner.

Meanwhile, those who come in contact with Covid patients have been advised to take 12 mg dose of the drug on the first and the seventh days. The health workers need to take the drug on the first day, seventh day and the thirtieth day in a month.

Additional chief medical officer of Gautam Budh Nagar district, Nepal Singh, said: “We have been giving the said medicines to patients and health workers for months. Now on, primary contacts will be asked to take the required dose.”

The health department has clarified that the drug should not be administered to children under the age of two years as well as to pregnant women.

Dr Navneet Kumar Verma, treasurer IMA (Ghaziabad chapter), while explaining the difference between the two drugs, said that hydroxychloroquine is essentially an anti-malarial drug while Ivermectin is an anti-parasitic drug — which has been found to be more effective in the treatment of Covid -19.

“It is not that the Ivermectin was not being used but, after results were found to be encouraging, the UP government has approved its use. It will replace hydroxychloroquine. Having said that, it is worth mentioning that we are still in a stage of hit-and-trial,” said Dr Navneet Kumar Verma, treasurer IMA, Ghaziabad.

“Ivermectin blocks entry of virus at multiple points thereby acting as an inhibitor for covid-19 causative virus (SARS-CoV-2), it has little side effect as compared to hydroxychloroquine which has found to be causing cardiac-related ailments in the long run,” said Verma.

The Ghaziabad DM, meanwhile, said use of Ivermectin is prevalent in the district and after state government’s direction hydroxychloroquine will be replaced. “We have enough stock of Ivermectin in the district” informed Ajay Shankar Pandey, district magistrate, Ghaziabad.

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