NOTING that clinical trials are still ongoing, Dr. Marissa Alejandria, president of the Philippine Society for Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (PSMID), on Thursday said they are not closing their door to the controversial anti-parasitic drug Ivermectin.
In a Kapihan session with health reporters, Alejandria, who is also the director of the Institute of Clinical Epidemiology of the UP-National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Professor at the UP College of Medicine, stressed that at the moment, there is still no sufficient evidence that Ivermectin can be used by humans.
“We are not closing the door on ivermectin. What we are saying is there is still insufficient evidence to give it to the general population,” she said, adding that doctors also should explain the current evidence of the drug before giving it to the patients. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted five hospitals in the country with compassionate special permit (CSP), which allows them to use Ivermectin for their patients.
Alejandria said the Living CPG group of experts that includes members of medical societies and health institutions like the Department of Health (DOH) and the FDA think there is “insufficient evidence at this time to recommend for or against the use of I vermectin” among mild to moderate Covid-19 patients.
In the same forum, Executive Director Jaime Montoya of the DOST-Philippine Council for Health Research and Development said that they will conduct the six-month local clinical trials of Ivermectin starting in May in Metro Manila.
Montoya said they are eyeing to enroll 1,200 Covid-19 patients in some quarantine facilities.
“Results will be given to medical societies for consideration, and FDA if deemed necessary,” Montoya said.
On Thursday, Deputy Speaker Rodante Marcoleta and Anakalusugan Party-list Rep. Mike Defensor launched their “Ivermectin Pan-three,” giving away Ivermectin tablets to Quezon City residents, with the help of doctors who assess the recipients before giving prescriptions.
The DOH officials did not comment, when asked, regarding the initiative of the lawmakers.
Earlier, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said that Ivermectin is still unregistered for human use.
Covid cases
The DOH, meanwhile logged 8,276 additional Covid-19 cases, bringing the total number of infections in the country to 1,028,738.
There were 6,636 recoveries and 114 deaths.
Of the total number of cases, 6.7 percent (69,354) are active, 91.6 percent (942,239) have recovered, 1.67 percent (17,145) have died.
Moreover, 68 cases previously tagged as recoveries were reclassified as deaths after final validation.
All laboratories were operational on April 27, 2021 while one laboratory was not able to submit data to the Covid-19 Document Repository System.
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