In a big breakthrough, scientists at Monash University found a single dose of the drug Ivermectin can kill COVID-19 cells. Ivermectin is an anti-parasitic drug which has been used to effectively fight viruses including HIV, Influenza, and Zika. Already approved by FDA, this easily available drug has been found to kill SARS-CoV-2 virus within 48 hours.
Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute’s Dr Kylie Wagstaff said, “We found that even a single dose could essentially remove all viral RNA (effectively removed all genetic material of the virus) by 48 hours and that even at 24 hours there was a really significant reduction in it.”
However, it is not clear how the drug works on the virus. Moreover the drug has been tested only in a petri dish at a lab. Scientists have yet to try it inside the human body. Not only that, they have yet to determine the correct dosage of the drug, safe for humans.
Wagstaff said, “In times when we’re having a global pandemic and there isn’t an approved treatment, if we had a compound that was already available around the world then that might help people sooner,” “Realistically it’s going to be a while before a vaccine is broadly available.”
