The doctors at Bangladesh Medical College, the first private medical college in the country, claim the drug that appears to inhibit the replication of the virus has reduced the symptoms of the COVID-19 patients by 50 percent in three days.

Ivermectin combined with an antibiotic, Doxycycline, was initially applied on some intern doctors at BMC from India’s Kashmir, who were diagnosed with the COVID-19 illness.

After four days of using the cocktail of drugs, the COVID-19 test results returned negative for the patients, according to Alam of BMC.

The Bangladesh doctors used the ivermectin on interns in April, as they were getting ready to catch a special flight home to India, which was just seven days away.

BMC has applied the medicine on 60 patients, including doctors, nurses, other hospital employees and their families. At least 50 of them experienced reduced symptoms in 48 hours. Also, 25 of them tested negative while others were yet to undergo tests.

Almost 80 percent of COVID-19 patients recover without any treatment, said Dr Alam. The patients will test negative in 48 hours if they take the medicine.

“COVID-19 patients are the health workers here. Some of their family members also came here seeking treatment. We provided the treatment as a clinical trial and as a humanitarian act. The DGHS protocol is meant for the government hospitals treating the virus-infected patients,” he said.

Habibur Rahman Khan, additional secretary of the Health Services Division, said they heard about the issue and the health ministry will see if the medicine can be used for COVID-19 treatment.

“The trial should be done on more patients. It should be promoted if the drug is proving to be effective. The government always supports any good initiative.”

Now they will have to seek “ethical permission” from Bangladesh Medical Research Council and the Directorate General of Drug Administration, Khan said.

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More good news, just need some RCT results to come through and it's game on!

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