While ivermectin was originally used to treat river blindness, it has also been repurposed to treat other human parasitic infections.
ISSOUF SANOGO/AFP via Getty Images
Ivermectin has been a lifesaving drug for people with parasitic infections like river blindness and strongyloidiasis. But taking it for COVID-19 may result in the opposite effect.
A nurse at Amudat Hospital in Northern Uganda, checks on a child being treated for kala-azar. The disease mostly affects children and young adults.
Lameck Ododo
Kala-azar, already one of the most neglected diseases on the planet, is in danger of becoming even more neglected.
A laboratory technician patient samples at the Amudat Hospital, Uganda. Laboratories are central to the delivery of high quality data in clinical trials.
Paul Kamau
Among the health conditions that might have faced a setback is leishmaniasis, a parasitic disease associated with poverty. It can cause devastating lifestyle changes, disability, and even death.
Millions of young children get malaria. These two got it in 2010.
AP Photo/Schalk van Zuydam
There’s a big market for new treatments for TB, malaria and other ailments. But most of these diseases afflict low-income people unable to pay for medicine.
Leishmaniasis is caused by a parasite that is carried by a female sandfly.
CDC/ Frank Collins