A Tennessee man who contracted COVID-19 recently participated in a study by the National Institute of Health (NIH) that seeks to identify and repurpose approved drugs to be used as therapeutics for the virus.
Brent Hendrickson is has now mostly recovered from COVID-19, according to News4, and had a unique opportunity to partake in the NIH’s trial of the inhaled steroid Fluticasone, the antidepressant Fluvoxamine, and the Nobel Prize-winning antiparasitic Ivermectin.
Hendrickson was not vaccinated when he caught the virus.
But after contracting the illness, his doctor informed him of the clinical trials, and he enrolled. The trials are being conducted entirely by tele-health, and the medical professionals administering them simply mail the drugs directly to the participants’ homes.
The goal of the clinical trials is to identify drugs that lessen the symptoms of COVID-19, as the medical community continues to wrestle with the virus.
Participants choose one of the three drugs as part of a double-blind study that began in August.
Hendrickson chose Ivermectin, and though there is no way to tell whether he took the actual medicine or a placebo, he said he began feeling better four days after his drug regiment began.
“While we’re doing a good job with treating hospitalized patients with severe disease, we don’t currently have an approved medication that can be self-administered to ease symptoms of people suffering from mild disease at home, and reduce the chance of their needing hospitalization,” NIH Director Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D said in August, when the trials began. “ACTIV-6 will evaluate whether certain drugs showing promise in small trials can pass the rigor of a larger trial.”
The NIH said that up to 13,500 Americans will participate in the trials.
In order to participate, COVID-19 patients must test positive, must have been experiencing symptoms for no longer than seven days, and must not be hospitalized.
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Pete D’Abrosca is a contributor at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Pete on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
