Although most medical research is reliable, studies that are flawed or fake can lead to patients undergoing treatments that might cause harm.
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Lisa Bero, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus
A new screening tool to help study reviewers identify what’s fake or shoddy in research may be on the horizon. And everyday people can apply some of the same critical analysis tools.
Mainstream medicine hasn’t yet found enough evidence-based treatments for long COVID. No wonder sufferers are turning to unproven therapies.
As the pandemic has progressed, so has scientists’ understanding of why masks matter and how best to protect against COVID.
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Ivermectin is vital for controlling a number of neglected tropical diseases, but mixed messaging and reported side-effects from its misuse against COVID could turn patients off it.
While ivermectin was originally used to treat river blindness, it has also been repurposed to treat other human parasitic infections.
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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.
The path to using old drugs for COVID is full of potholes. So why are we using the same old flawed methods when we actually know what works?
Emergency medical technicians aid a COVID-19 patient at his home in Louisville, Kentucky. Like much of the U.S., Louisville is experiencing an uptick in COVID-19 patients requiring emergency transport to medical facilities.
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Medications to treat COVID-19 are in no way a substitute for the vaccine. But under the right circumstances, some show great promise for helping patients.
Ivermectin is used to treat parasitic infections, but has not been shown to prevent or treat COVID-19.
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Investigations have led to the withdrawal of a study backing ivermectin to treat COVID-19. But that’s not the last time we’ll hear about this controversial drug.
Ivermectin is effective in treating river blindness. We’re not sure about COVID.
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The antiparasitic drug was thought to be a potential treatment for COVID-19, but there isn’t sufficient evidence to recommend its use, despite widespread support online.
The head lice drug ivermectin is being touted as a coronavirus killer. But studies suggest it would need to be taken in mega-doses far higher than those currently used, with unknown side-effects.
The head lice drug Ivermectin has stopped SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, from replicating in lab tests. But we don’t know if it will work as a treatment for people with coronavirus.
Some tropical diseases can be treated with very inexpensive daily treatments yet remain common.
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A cure for many tropical diseases was discovered 30 years ago this month. The drug is donated by its manufacturer. Why are we still dealing with neglected tropical diseases?
Children living in tropical countries and in poverty often have high rates of infection with the scabies mite.
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Andrew Steer, Murdoch Children's Research Institute
Although a drug of known safety and efficacy is available, scabies still affects more than 100 million people across the world.
Indonesian schoolchildren show off the mark indicating they’ve just taken anti-filariasis medication, a drug that prevents just one of the world’s ‘neglected’ diseases.
CDC Global
The 2015 Nobel Prize in medicine went to research on remedies derived from natural compounds. Academia is continuing the fight against ‘neglected’ diseases by similarly hunting for new drugs in nature.
Group Leader, Murdoch Childrens Research Institute. Associate Professor, Department of Paediatrics, University of Melbourne. Paediatric Infectious Diseases Physician, Royal Children's Hospital, Murdoch Children's Research Institute