Taking a vaccine or treatment for Covid-19, Chilean scientists have not been left behind. Within that group is Dr. Sebastián Ugarte, known by the media for his participation in the morning "Good morning to all" on TVN, where he clarifies doubts about the coronavirus.

Ugarte, head of the Critical Patients Service of the Indisa Clinic, is trying, together with other experts from that venue and the Andrés Bello University, to treat infected patients by supplying them with mectin, an antiparasitic used in the treatment of pedicu losis and rosacea.

Note: "mectin" is ivermectin.

Cellular studies by scientists at Moash University (Melbourne, Australia) proved in vitro tests that this drug was able to stop almost 99.8% the reproduction of the virus in human cells after 48 hours. With this background, Ugarte and his team launched in early April to test the effects of the remedy. They already have more than 55 patients and the tests have been extended until the last weeks of May. “We developed a protocol and presented it to the scientific committee of the Indisa Clinic. The committee had to review it and approve it; They presented us with corrections, observations and so the days passed. When we had their approval, we presented it to the scientific ethics committee of the Andrés Bello University. We approved the study and there we began to treat the patients. We treated them with ivermectin on the first day of hospitalization. All had severe illnesses, were hospitalized in critical beds, which is what I manage, and were serious or even more serious, "says the specialist. Ugarte continues: "What did we see? 48 hours after giving ivermectin, we measured a new PCR to the patients to see if they continued to eliminate viruses or not.

Where is this study?

We know that they could have destroyed the virus and still eliminate a little more, because you see that there are fragments of virus that people eliminate, even if they are not infectious, but we still measure after 48 hours and, surprise, 85% of patients who received ivermectin, showed negative PCR.

Wow: 85% of seriously ill patients cleared of the virus after 1 dose, within 48 hours.

In addition, this was associated with decreased mortality, improved blood oxygenation, etc. "Low-cost Approved for use in humans more than 40 years ago as an antiparasitic, In the scientific race to be endorsed by organisms by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA, USA) and the World Health Organization, the Dr. Sebastián Ugarte describes ivermectin as a drug with low adverse effects. It is in all countries, its use is safe and inexpensive (approximately $5,000 the dose per person). "It is not experimental. It is free of patents, so it can be manufactured as generic without paying a higher price. It is readily available and well tolerated in the usual doses, which are 200 micrograms per kilo.

$5,000 Chilean dollars = $6.30 US.

This was what was administered in patients with confirmed Covid-19 orally, in capsules and droplets. "The doctor clarifies that the results of his study are preliminary, but points out that they were reported to the health authorities: their eventual use in patients with coronavirus could decrease the mortality rate by up to six times if it is given as soon as the diagnosis is made. "It is not a medicine to give it almost at the end of the disease when the patient is already serious. The ideal is to give it to the patient, it is hardly diagnosed.

Give it early for a 6-times reduction in fatality rates. Too bad no data about fatalities is reported.

And if it occurs when a person is already connected to mechanical ventilation, the mortality rate decreases to three, "he comments about the drug that in Bolivia has already been included in the list of drugs to stop the antiviral efficacy Luis Quiñones, director of the Laboratory of Chemical Carcinogenesis and Pharmacogenetics of the Department of Basic Clinical Oncology of the Faculty of Medicine of the U. De Chile, confirms that there is scientific evidence of the effectiveness of ivermectin as an antiviral. "It has been tested in other pathologies; for example, it was tested in vitro and in HIV patients. It was suggested that its mechanism of action inhibits an enzyme called integrase, which in the case of HIV prevents the virus from entering the cell. Maybe in this case it is something new and it also happens in this disease, for making an analogy. And as Dr. Ugarte says, the sooner we treat it, the better. ” Quiñones calls for a cautious wait for the results of clinical studies; Not only for its effectiveness, but also for any possible adverse effects. "An antiparasitic is a pesticide. Pesticides, in general, are elements that must be handled with great care, because although sometimes they do not have immediate side effects, many times they have long-term side effects, ”he warns.

Integrase? TIL for me. Another name for IMP alpha/beta1?

Ivermectin is not a pesticide, doctor!

These effects could include gastrointestinal problems (nausea, vomiting) and teratogenesis (fetal malformations). Jaime Labarca, head of the Department of Infectious Diseases of the Catholic University, agrees . "When you want to test more strongly the effectiveness of a medicine, you have to do interventional studies, in which you do not know who is receiving the medicine and who is receiving the placebo. The use of ivermectin has to be confirmed with studies of this nature to so compare Dr. Ugarte's is promising, but it is observational: it describes how a group or person reacted to a certain drug, and it has to be confirmed with another type of study.

No evidence of teratogenesis, among maybe 10-15 million women dosed with ivermectin not knowing they were pregnant during Mass Drug Administrations (my own math posted somewhere on the sub recently).

You have to compare whether the same thing happened to the patient who received the other remedy or did not receive the remedy ", he specifies." Ivermectin is a drug that can be useful, but this requires confirmation with these studies that have a methodology that allow to confirm with more certainty the findings ”, he closes.

Dr. Ugarte is promising, but it is observational: it must be confirmed with another type of study ”Dr. Jaime Labarca

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Integrase is the HIV protein that binds to host cell importins to traverse the nuclear envelope. It isn’t an alternative name for importins

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