Dear Editor,
Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) is still present big global problem. Finding for effective drug against severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus-2 is ongoing. Of several new proposals, ivermectin is an interesting candidate (1). Clinically, ivermectin is an effective antiparasitic drug. It is also used as a main drug for management of filariasis. In some countries, such as India and Southeast Asian countries, the drug is currently used for filariasis prophylaxis. However, there is still a high incidence of COVID-19 in those countries (2). However, there is still limited data on area specific rate of COVID-19 in the settings where filariasis is endemic and ivermectin is regularly used. Here, the authors discuss on available COVID-19 statistics from an Indochina country, where COVID-19 has been occurred since early 2020.
The local available data from local Ministry of Public Health on COVID-19 (most update data on 14th August 2021) are retrospectively analyzed. The focused area is the northern region of the country, consisting 9 provinces, of which 1 province are classified as an endemic area of filariasis and ivermectin is locally widely used for disease control. The association between incidence of COVID-19 and endemic nature of filariasis is assessed (Table 1). Based on the analysis, the incidence of COVID-19 in the province which is an endemic nature of filariasis is lower than all other provinces which are non-endemic area of filariasis. However, from correlation analysis, there is no significant negative correlation between incidence of COVID-19 and endemic nature of filariasis (r=-0.209, p=0.589). This is an interesting observation which might imply a possible role of routine ivermectin medication in the filariasis endemic area. This real world data might be an evidence to support further study on role of ivermectin against COVID-19.
*Ethics
Peer-review: Internally peer-reviewed.
* Authorship Contributions
Surgical and Medical Practices: P.S., V.W., Concept: P.S., V.W., Design: P.S., V.W., Data Collection or Processing: P.S., V.W., Analysis or Interpretation: P.S., V.W., Literature Search: P.S., V.W., Writing: P.S., V.W.
Conflict of Interest: No conflict of interest was declared by the authors.
Financial Disclosure: The authors declared that this study received no financial support.
