World tour of treatments Bangladesh's Doctor Khan : Ivermectin is working here too

We continue our “World Tour” of treatments for COVID-19, with this Debriefing interview with Professor Wasif Ali Khan, in Bangladesh. 

Doctor Kahn is a physician and research scientist specialising in enteric and respiratory infections. He began to research treatments for COVID-19 very early in the pandemic and created a double-blind clinical trial of ivermectin, following the results of an Australian laboratory study in April 2020 that indicated in vitro antiviral activity of ivermectin against SARS-CoV-2.

In this Debriefing interview, offered in partnership with the French civic group  BonSens, Doctor Khan  shares his insights and experiences of the successful use of ivermectin in the treatment of COVID-19 patients.  (French subtitles are provided by VOSTFR, IQ)

Bangladesh and COVID-19 

Bangladesh is an Asian country with 166 million inhabitants (Worldometer). To date, 890 'deaths attributed to COVD-19’ have been recorded, so that is 10.4 times fewer deaths than in France, with a population 2.5 times that of France. Therefore, the number of deaths per million inhabitants is 27 times lower. Approximately 5.1million doses of vaccine have been administered.

Case and Mortality Statistics

Mortality/Date – Bangladesh vs France

About Doctor Khan’s Clinical Trial

The randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled three-arm clinical trial evaluated oral administration of single dose ivermectin (12 mg) in combination with doxycycline (200 mg stat of doxycycline on day 1 followed by 100 mg every 12 hours for 4 days), ivermectin alone (12 mg once daily for 5 days), compared to placebo in 68 hospitalized patients with COVID-19 in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The distribution of patients was 22, 23 and 23 in each arm of the trial, respectively. 

Several hospitals participated in the study, which was conducted from July to September 2020, and was funded by Beximco Pharmaceuticals Ltd. The company also provided all of the drugs used in this trial. 

The study showed that patients in the 5-day ivermectin group were 77% more likely to have a reduction in viral load by Day 14 compared to those who received ivermectin and doxycycline (61%) and a placebo (39%). It also showed that on Day 3, 18% of patients in the ivermectin-alone group started to show a reduction in viral load compared to ivermectin plus doxycycline (3%) and placebo (3%), while on Day 7 it was 50%, 30% and 13% respectively. The results of the study were published in the  International Journal of Infectious Diseases (IJID)  on 2 December 2020.

On 7 December 2020, the ICDDR (International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh) in Dhaka held a presentation on the clinical trial, where Professor Khan presented the study results. His conclusion was that “Although the study sample was too small to draw a strong conclusion, the results provide evidence of the potential benefit of early intervention with ivermectin for the treatment of adult patients diagnosed with mild COVID-19. The results are also consistent with other global studies on ivermectin as a treatment for COVID-19."

(Article modified 29 march 2021 : title of Mr. Khan modified from Professor to Doctor)