Role of ivermectin in the prevention of SARS-CoV-2 infection among healthcare workers in India: A matched case-control study

DOI record: { "DOI": "10.1371/journal.pone.0247163", "ISSN": [ "1932-6203" ], "URL": "http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0247163", "abstract": "<jats:sec id=\"sec001\">\n<jats:title>Background</jats:title>\n<jats:p>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.</jats:p>\n</jats:sec>\n<jats:sec id=\"sec002\">\n<jats:title>Methods</jats:title>\n<jats:p>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.</jats:p>\n</jats:sec>\n<jats:sec id=\"sec003\">\n<jats:title>Results</jats:title>\n<jats:p>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.</jats:p>\n</jats:sec>\n<jats:sec id=\"sec004\">\n<jats:title>Conclusion</jats:title>\n<jats:p>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.</jats:p>\n</jats:sec>", "author": [ { "affiliation": [], "family": "Behera", "given": "Priyamadhaba", "sequence": "first" }, { "affiliation": [], "family": "Patro", "given": "Binod Kumar", "sequence": "additional" }, { "affiliation": [], "family": "Singh", "given": "Arvind Kumar", "sequence": "additional" }, { "affiliation": [], "family": "Chandanshive", "given": "Pradnya Dilip", "sequence": "additional" }, { "ORCID": "http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0297-0177", "affiliation": [], "authenticated-orcid": true, "family": "S. R.", "given": "Ravikumar", "sequence": "additional" }, { "affiliation": [], "family": "Pradhan", "given": "Somen Kumar", "sequence": "additional" }, { "affiliation": [], "family": "Pentapati", "given": "Siva Santosh Kumar", "sequence": "additional" }, { "ORCID": "http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7134-8395", "affiliation": [], "authenticated-orcid": true, "family": "Batmanabane", "given": "Gitanjali", "sequence": "additional" }, { "affiliation": [], "family": "Mohapatra", "given": "Prasanta Raghab", "sequence": "additional" }, { "affiliation": [], "family": "Padhy", "given": "Biswa Mohan", "sequence": "additional" }, { "affiliation": [], "family": "Bal", "given": "Shakti Kumar", "sequence": "additional" }, { "affiliation": [], "family": "Singh", "given": "Sudipta Ranjan", "sequence": "additional" }, { "affiliation": [], "family": "Mohanty", "given": "Rashmi Ranjan", "sequence": "additional" } ], "container-title": "PLOS ONE", "container-title-short": "PLoS ONE", "content-domain": { "crossmark-restriction": false, "domain": [ "www.plosone.org" ] }, "created": { "date-parts": [ [ 2021, 2, 16 ] ], "date-time": "2021-02-16T22:17:46Z", "timestamp": 1613513866000 }, "deposited": { "date-parts": [ [ 2021, 2, 16 ] ], "date-time": "2021-02-16T22:18:23Z", "timestamp": 1613513903000 }, "editor": [ { "affiliation": [], "family": "Adrish", "given": "Muhammad", "sequence": "first" } ], "indexed": { "date-parts": [ [ 2024, 3, 29 ] ], "date-time": "2024-03-29T11:51:30Z", "timestamp": 1711713090656 }, "is-referenced-by-count": 44, "issue": "2", "issued": { "date-parts": [ [ 2021, 2, 16 ] ] }, "journal-issue": { "issue": "2", "published-online": { "date-parts": [ [ 2021, 2, 16 ] ] } }, "language": "en", "license": [ { "URL": "http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "content-version": "vor", "delay-in-days": 0, "start": { "date-parts": [ [ 2021, 2, 16 ] ], "date-time": "2021-02-16T00:00:00Z", "timestamp": 1613433600000 } } ], "link": [ { "URL": "https://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0247163", "content-type": "unspecified", "content-version": "vor", "intended-application": "similarity-checking" } ], "member": "340", "original-title": [], "page": "e0247163", "prefix": "10.1371", "published": { "date-parts": [ [ 2021, 2, 16 ] ] }, "published-online": { "date-parts": [ [ 2021, 2, 16 ] ] }, "publisher": "Public Library of Science (PLoS)", "reference": [ { "key": "pone.0247163.ref001", "unstructured": "WHO Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Dashboard [Internet]. 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