• Colomb Medica · Dec 2020

    Comparative Study

    COVID-19: The Ivermectin African Enigma.

    • Rodrigo Guerrero, Luis Eduardo Bravo, Edgar Muñoz, ArdilaElvia Karina GrilloEKG0000-0001-9504-5153Universidad del Valle, Facultad de Salud, Doctorado en Salud, Cali, Colombia., and Esteban Guerrero.
    • Universidad del Valle, Instituto de Investigación y Desarrollo en Prevención de la Violencia y Promoción de la Convivencia Social, CISALVA, Cali, Colombia.
    • Colomb Medica. 2020 Dec 30; 51 (4): e2014613.

    IntroductionThe low frequency of cases and deaths from the SARS-CoV-2 COVID-19 virus in some countries of Africa has called our attention about the unusual behavior of this disease. The ivermectin is considered a drug of choice for various parasitic and viral diseases and shown to have in vitro effects against SARS-CoV-2.AimsOur study aimed to describe SARS-CoV2 infection and death rates in African countries that participated in an intensive Ivermectin mass campaign carried out to control onchocerciasis and compare them with those of countries that did not participate.MethodsData from 19 countries that participated in the World Health Organization (WHO) sponsored African Programme for Onchocerciasis Control (APOC), from 1995 until 2015, were compared with thirty-five (Non-APOC), countries that were not included. Information was obtained from https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/ database. Generalized Poisson regression models were used to obtain estimates of the effect of APOC status on cumulative SARS-CoV-2 infection and mortality rates.ResultsAfter controlling for different factors, including the Human Development Index (HDI), APOC countries (vs. non-APOC), show 28% lower mortality (0.72; 95% CI: 0.67-0.78) and 8% lower rate of infection (0.92; 95% CI: 0.91-0.93) due to COVID-19.ConclusionsThe incidence in mortality rates and number of cases is significantly lower among the APOC countries compared to non-APOC countries. That a mass public health preventive campaign against COVID-19 may have taken place, inadvertently, in some African countries with massive community ivermectin use is an attractive hypothesis. Additional studies are needed to confirm it.Copyright © 2020 Colombia Medica.

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