Bangladesh launches clinical trial of two-drug combination to treat COVID-19
Reportedly, the combination of anti-parasitic medicine Ivermectin and antibiotic doxycycline cured all the 60 COVID-19 patients within days
Bangladesh has launched a clinical trial of a combination of anti-parasitic and antibiotic vaccines to treat COVID-19 after getting positive results in patients administered with a mix of two drugs.
Bangladesh-based International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research (ICDDR) said that the trial would be conducted on 72 infected patients in four hospitals treating COVID-19 in Dhaka. Reportedly, the study has commenced in Kurmitola General Hospital and Mugda Medical College and Hospital and discussions with others are underway.
“Today, ICCDR has started a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial to evaluate the safety and efficacy of anti-parasitic medicine Ivermectin in combination with antibiotic doxycycline or Ivermectin alone,” the centre said in a statement.
A Bangladeshi doctors’ team led by senior medicine specialist Professor Tarek Alam prescribed the combination as it initially cured within days all the 60 COVID-19 patients who were administered with the drugs.
According to the ICDDR, the study will include COVID-19 patients between 40-65 years of age with mild illness for less than seven days.
One group of participants will receive a single dose Ivermectin along with five doses of doxycycline, while another group will receive Ivermectin alone once a day for five days, while the third group will receive a placebo for five days.
The test medicine and placebo will be packaged identically and neither the participants nor the physicians will have the k