Doctors Turn to Widely-Used Deworming Drug as a Treatment for COVID-19

A health worker shows a box containing a bottle of Ivermectin, a medicine authorized by the National Institute for Food and Drug Surveillance (INVIMA) to treat patients with mild, asymptomatic or suspicious COVID-19, as part of a study of the Center for Pediatric Infectious Diseases Studies, in Cali, Colombia, on July 21, 2020. Luis Robayo/AFP via Getty Images

Eight months into the pandemic and without much guidance from federal health agencies on therapies for COVID-19, doctors are turning to an inexpensive anti-parasitic drug as a treatment for all stages of the disease.

Ivermectin, an anti-parasitic medication used for almost three decades, has proven in vitro to stop the replication of several RNA viruses that include zika, dengue, and the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, which causes the disease COVID-19.