2-Drug Combination Corona Treatment Inspires Indian Doctors

Doctors across India have been highly motivated knowing that a Bangladeshi doctor using a two-drug mixture has cured coronavirus-infected patients in only four days.

Professor Tarek Alam, Head of the Department of Medicine at Bangladesh Medical College Hospital (BMCH) in Dhaka, has seen astounding results from the use of antiparasitic drugs Ivermectin and antibiotic Doxycycline in patients admitted to BMCH with coronavirus infection.

In only four days, Dr. Alam said he and his team have effectively treated 60 new coronavirus patients in conjunction with Ivermectin and Doxycycline in his hospital. Few patients who had trouble breathing were issued both medications. It did not cause any side-effects and successfully cured the patients.

Hearing about Bangladeshi doctor's impressive progress in handling coronavirus-infected patients effectively, India Today's news anchor Rajdeep Sardesai talked to Dr Tarek Alam of Bangladesh Medical College Hospital in Dhaka from New Delhi News Centre. 

Meanwhile, knowing about the success of Dr Alam and his team in treating coronavirus patients, Dr Aarti Lal Chandani, Principal of Kanpur Medical College of India, told Zee Media that 'Ivermectin is a drug that is part of the World Health Organization's deworming program, and is considered safe in the WHO's Safety List. It is used as a de-worming tablet."

According to health specialist Dr Kaushal Kant Mishra, research undertaken at Monash University, Australia and the Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Lab have shown that Ivermectin can kill coronavirus within 48 hours. The analysis also showed that the usage of the medication had reduced coronavirus RNA by almost 93%.

Dr Mishra said doctors of a private hospital in Bangladesh gave Ivermectin as well as an antibiotic drug Doxycycline to 60 coronavirus patients and after 72 hours, they found that all the patients were COVID-19 negative.

Dr Tarek Alam said he had a meeting with the Bangladesh health minister on Tuesday morning and he had given him 'green signal' go ahead with a large scale randomised trial with the combination of Ivermectin and Doxycycline on coronavirus infected patients.

He said, "We have found 100 per cent success after applying the medication to COVID-19 patients at hospitals and their relatives at home quarantines."

Doctors all over the world are now searching for a variety of medications that can manage patients with coronavirus before the vaccine is created.

Dr. Alam said they wanted a randomized clinical study before proposing that a mixture of medications could be commonly used to treat patients with coronavirus infection.

Asked whether he was confident that the combination of drugs could be widely used within a month, Dr Alam said, "I'm reasonably confident that within a month we will have this combination of drugs."

When questioned whether the combination of drugs should be administered to patients in both moderate and critical diseases, three patients claimed they were in serious condition and did not want to travel to government hospitals so they preferred to be handled with this combination of drugs here at the BMCH so enhanced. Some patients had asymptomatic and minor effects, and they were often enhanced.

Doctors and scientists from all around the world are working hard to discover coronavirus drugs. More than 100 international teams are actually involved in work against this lethal virus. Some vaccine firms have already achieved initial lead, but it would take at least two years to reach final progress.

Even if scientists are able to make a vaccine for coronavirus in the next few months, it will take a lot of time to reach 750 crore people of the world. In such a situation, doctors around the world are trying a few already available medicines on COVID-19 patients and some of these drugs have shown results.

Ivermectin is known to be an antimicrobial medication to improve tolerance. If it proves to be effective in the treatment of coronavirus, it would certainly become a miracle drug, but a major trial is needed. The drug has above all shown the world's medical fraternity a ray of hope in the fight against the deadly virus.