Role of ivermectin in the prevention of SARS-CoV-2 infection among healthcare workers in India (March 30 2021)

Note

This page was Retrieved and copied March 30 2021

URL https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0247163

Authors:

Priyamadhaba Behera,Binod Kumar Patro,Arvind Kumar Singh,Pradnya Dilip Chandanshive,Ravikumar S. R.,Somen Kumar Pradhan,Siva Santosh Kumar Pentapati,Gitanjali Batmanabane ,Prasanta Raghab Mohapatra,Biswa Mohan Padhy,Shakti Kumar Bal,Sudipta Ranjan Singh,Rashmi Ranjan Mohanty

Published: February 16, 2021 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0247163

Title:

  • “Role of ivermectin in the prevention of SARS-CoV-2 infection among healthcare workers in India: A matched case-control study” [PLOS One].

The Conclusion:

  • “Two-dose ivermectin prophylaxis at a dose of 300 μg/kg with a gap of 72 hours was associated with a 73% reduction of SARS-CoV-2 infection among healthcare workers for the following month.

Recommendation:

  • Chemoprophylaxis has relevance in the containment of pandemic.”

Methods:

  • “A hospital-based matched case-control study was conducted among healthcare workers of AIIMS Bhubaneswar, India, from September to October 2020. Profession, gender, age and date of diagnosis were matched for 186 case-control pairs.” • Worth a careful review.

Abstract

Background

Ivermectin is one among several potential drugs explored for its therapeutic and preventive role in SARS-CoV-2 infection. The study was aimed to explore the association between ivermectin prophylaxis and the development of SARS-CoV-2 infection among healthcare workers.

Methods

A hospital-based matched case-control study was conducted among healthcare workers of AIIMS Bhubaneswar, India, from September to October 2020. Profession, gender, age and date of diagnosis were matched for 186 case-control pairs. Cases and controls were healthcare workers who tested positive and negative, respectively, for COVID-19 by RT-PCR. Exposure was defined as the intake of ivermectin and/or hydroxychloroquine and/or vitamin-C and/or other prophylaxis for COVID-19. Data collection and entry was done in Epicollect5, and analysis was performed using STATA version 13. Conditional logistic regression models were used to describe the associated factors for SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Results

Ivermectin prophylaxis was taken by 76 controls and 41 cases. Two-dose ivermectin prophylaxis (AOR 0.27, 95% CI, 0.15–0.51) was associated with a 73% reduction of SARS-CoV-2 infection among healthcare workers for the following month. Those involved in physical activity (AOR 3.06 95% CI, 1.18–7.93) for more than an hour/day were more likely to contract SARS-CoV-2 infection. Type of household, COVID duty, single-dose ivermectin prophylaxis, vitamin-C prophylaxis and hydroxychloroquine prophylaxis were not associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Conclusion

Two-dose ivermectin prophylaxis at a dose of 300 μg/kg with a gap of 72 hours was associated with a 73% reduction of SARS-CoV-2 infection among healthcare workers for the following month. Chemoprophylaxis has relevance in the containment of pandemic.

Citation: Behera P, Patro BK, Singh AK, Chandanshive PD, S. R. R, Pradhan SK, et al. (2021) Role of ivermectin in the prevention of SARS-CoV-2 infection among healthcare workers in India: A matched case-control study. PLoS ONE 16(2): e0247163. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0247163

Editor: Muhammad Adrish, BronxCare Health System, UNITED STATES

Received: December 14, 2020; Accepted: February 2, 2021; Published: February 16, 2021

Copyright: © 2021 Behera et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Data Availability: The anonymized data set has been uploaded to the public repository (figshare). The dataset can be accessed at the following link: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.13603454.

Funding: The author(s) have received no specific funding for this work.

Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Last change: Tue, 03 Aug 2021 10:25 PM UTC