The drug, which is approved in human medicine as an anthelmintic, leads to a reduction in virus reproduction in laboratory studies, said the British university. A small pilot study shows that early administration of the drug could reduce the viral load and the duration of symptoms in some patients.
Although the World Health Organization (WHO) and European and US regulators have advised against the use of ivermectin in Covid-19 patients, it is used to treat the disease in some countries, including India. Meanwhile, the chairman of the World Medical Association, Frank Ulrich Montgomery, demanded that “vaccination skeptics and vaccination deniers” be approached.
“If we do not convince a part of this group of the sense of vaccination, we will not achieve herd immunity,” he told the editorial network Germany. With a view to the highly contagious Delta variant, the German said: “Those who do not get vaccinated will sooner or later become infected with the coronavirus.”
Drosten: “Raise awareness for vaccination”
In view of the feared spread of the Delta variant, the German virologist Christian Drosten pleaded to raise awareness of the importance of vaccination. “This is really what we have to do now,” postulated the scientist from the Berlin Charit in the podcast “Coronavirus Update” (NDR info).
Drosten did not decide whether there would be a trend reversal in the infection process due to delta as early as summer or not until autumn. In the fall, the incidence will definitely rise again, he said – and highlighted the importance of vaccination for parents of school children.
Numbers in England are rising again
In England, where the corona situation has worsened again because of the more contagious mutant discovered in India, the seven-day incidence rose again from a level of 25. “You hadn’t slowed down as far as we’ve already done in Germany.” In this country, the value was recently below 10 infections per week and 100,000 inhabitants.
The virologist also pointed out, for example, that after Germany there was probably not such a high number of independent entries of the variant – for example directly from India. In England there is also a slightly different structure in the population with communities of Asian origin in which the virus initially emerged. “That’s why it may not be the case with us.” Another big advantage is that the summer holidays are coming up in Germany.
From our own laboratory data, there are initial indications that people infected with the delta variant have an even higher viral load than those infected with the alpha variant (B.1.1.7), reported Drosten. For him, previous data give signals that Delta is causing somewhat more severe gradients. The protection against a severe course of the disease for completely vaccinated people is equivalent to the alpha variant, which is still dominant in Germany. The protection provided only by the first vaccination is, however, considered to be weaker compared to the effect against previous forms of the virus.
I am Pierce Boyd, a driven and ambitious professional working in the news industry. I have been writing for 24 Hours Worlds for over five years, specializing in sports section coverage. During my tenure at the publication, I have built an impressive portfolio of articles that has earned me a reputation as an experienced journalist and content creator.
