[evilthrow]

> This study appears to have been done in Canada, where parasite infection rates in the general population are probably 1% or less. Hence... no demonstrable benefit to using Ivermectin!

"Dr. Mills and his colleagues looked at 1,358 adults who visited one of 12 clinics in the Minas Gerais region of Brazil with Covid-19 symptoms."

[rendall]

To close that circle, apparently parasite infection is quite high in Minas Gerais:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4964320/ > Eleven sites were selected for sampling. Cysts of Entamoeba coli were the most frequently found in this study (50%), followed by Hymenolepis diminuta eggs (27.6%), Iodamoeba butschllii cysts (5.6%), Ascaris lumbricoides eggs (5.6%), Taenia species eggs (5.6%) and hookworm eggs (5.6%). The highest positivity rates were found in the samples drawn from the cafeteria's eating table.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30050346/ > Results: A total of 216 slides were analyzed [sampled from public bus seats], of which 86 (39.8%) were positive for at least one intestinal parasite.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29972467/ > The aim of this study was to establish the prevalence of Schistosoma mansoni in indigenous Maxakali villages, evaluating the TF-Test® performance for diagnosis compared to the Kato-Katz technique. Stool samples from 545 individuals were processed by the TF-Test® (1 sample) and Kato-Katz (1 slide). The positivity rate for S. mansoni by Kato-Katz was 45.7%. The rate by the TF-Test® was 33.2%, and 51.9% by the combined parasitological techniques. The amplitude of parasite load was 24 to 4,056 eggs per gram of feces (epg), with a geometric mean of 139 epg.

[rendall]

Sadly, I could find no studies on parasite infection rates in Minas Tirith, however.

[ChrisMarshallNY]

The dreaded Morgul Crabs are a known problem.

[hef19898]

Minas Morgul wouldn't have been a surprise. Minas Tirith so, I thought they were more open and accessible...

[FeepingCreature]

I can't find a link to the actual results. Wondering if they excluded parasitic infection as a confounder, or something.

Alternately if they gave the antiparasitic far enough before the infection, the rather complex causal sequence of "severe Covid -> steroids -> parasites multiply -> Ivermectin to the rescue" might not happen in the first place. Though that should show up by severe cases not having the parasitic reaction to begin with, if the Ivermectin cleared them out.

- So in summary, actually, now that I think about it, in a country with high parasite load, an antiparasitic having no detectable effect on survival rate of a high-stress infection seems pretty suspicious on the face of it! Really could go for a study link.