Scientists around the world in are in a global race to find the vaccine and cure for the Coronavirus (COVID-19) that has swept the entire world claiming more than 60,000 lives and infecting more than a million people.
There have been several recommendations like Chroloquine but medics have come out to caution using this medicine without prescription and follow up for side effects by a physician.
There could be a breakthrough in the search for a vaccine or even better, a cure as scientists at Monash Biomedical Discovery Institute at Monash University in Australia have discovered that a single dose of an anti-parasitic head lice drug called ‘Ivermectin’ can kill COVID-19 in the lab within 48 hours.
“We found that even a single dose could essentially remove all viral RNA (effectively removed all genetic material of the virus) by 48 hours and that even at 24 hours, there was a really significant reduction in it,” Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute’s Dr Kylie Wagstaff said yesterday, as quoted by UK news site Daily Mail.
The next step is for scientists to determine the correct human dosage, to make sure the level used in vitro is safe for humans, but it will take some time for the vaccine to be broadly available everywhere even though human trials re expected to start in at least a month.
Ivermectin is an FDA-approved anti-parasitic drug also shown to be effective in vitro against viruses including HIV, dengue, and influenza.