'He's in our hearts': Family and friends still seek answers one year after Nathan Wise’s disappearance
It’s been a year since Nathan Wise went missing and his family is no closer to finding out what happened to him.
A new study has found that three drugs, including the antiparasitic ivermectin, had no significant effects in treating low oxygen levels or preventing ER visits, hospitalization or death due to COVID-19.
The research, published Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine, compared the effectiveness of the Type 2 diabetes medication metformin, low-dose fluvoxamine, which is an antidepressant, and ivermectin as possible treatments against COVID-19 and long-term symptoms.
"None of the three medications that were evaluated prevented the occurrence of hypoxemia, an emergency department visit, hospitalization, or death associated with COVID-19," the study says.
While the researchers say metformin may offer possible benefits in preventing ER visits, hospitalization and death, the results aren't definitive without other studies.
Of all three drugs analyzed, ivermectin has received the most attention during the COVID-19 pandemic as a possible treatment for the disease.
While the drug has proven to be an effective antiparasitic medication, with its discoverers sharing a Nobel Prize in 2015, results have been mixed on whether it can treat COVID-19.
Some research has found ivermectin effective in a laboratory setting, but the researchers behind the latest New England Journal of Medicine study point out that some studies involved levels of ivermectin 50 to 100 times those achievable in humans.
After reports that some people were using a veterinary version of ivermectin, Health Canada issued an advisory in August 2021 asking people to not use either the animal or human versions of the drug.
A total of 1,323 adults, all of whom qualified as being either overweight or obese, participated in the recent study.
Participants received two types of pills for either three or 14 days, depending on the drugs.
The pills were randomly assigned to patients in one of six ways: metformin plus fluvoxamine; metformin plus ivermectin; metformin plus a placebo; fluvoxamine and a placebo; ivermectin and a placebo; or two placebos.
The median age of the patients was 46 and 56 per cent were female, of whom 6.1 per cent were pregnant.
Volunteers must have enrolled within three days after receiving a positive COVID-19 test, and had symptoms within seven days of being randomized for the drug treatments. Fifty-two per cent of participants were vaccinated.
The researchers say the study was limited because it only included patients who were overweight or obese, and only a few of them were Black or Latinx.
It’s been a year since Nathan Wise went missing and his family is no closer to finding out what happened to him.
Dozens of Ontarians are expressing frustration in the province’s health-care system after their family doctors either dropped them as patients or threatened to after they sought urgent care elsewhere.
An Ottawa pizzeria is being recognized as one of the top 20 deep-dish pizzas in the world.
Amazon's paid subscription service provides free delivery for online shopping across Canada except for remote locations, the company said in an email. While customers in Iqaluit qualify for the offer, all other communities in Nunavut are excluded.
The fire burning near Fort McMurray grew from 25 hectares to 5,500 hectares over the weekend.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin began a Cabinet shakeup on Sunday, proposing the replacement of Sergei Shoigu as defence minister as he begins his fifth term in office.
Police are searching for a male suspect after a man was “slashed in neck” on Sunday morning in downtown Toronto and died.
There were some scary moments for several people on a northern Ontario highway caught on video Thursday after a chain reaction following a truck fire.
Health Canada announced various product recalls this week, including electric adapters, armchairs, cannabis edibles and vehicle components.
English, history, entertainment, math and geography: high school trivia teams could be quizzed on any of it when they compete at the Reach for the Top Nationals in Ottawa in June.
An Ottawa pizzeria is being recognized as one of the top 20 deep-dish pizzas in the world.
A family of fifth generation farmers from Ituna, Sask. are trying to find answers after discovering several strange objects lying on their land.
A Listowel, Ont. man, drafted by the Hamilton Tigercats last week, is also getting looks from the NFL, despite only playing 27 games of football in his life.
The threat of zebra mussels has prompted the federal government to temporarily ban watercraft from a Manitoba lake popular with tourists.
A small Ajax dessert shop that recently received a glowing review from celebrity food critic Keith Lee is being forced to move after a zoning complaint was made following the social media influencer’s visit last month.
The Canada Science and Technology Museum is inviting visitors to explore their poop. A new exhibition opens at the Ottawa museum on Friday called, 'Oh Crap! Rethinking human waste.'
The Regina Police Service says it is the first in Saskatchewan and possibly Canada to implement new technology in its detention facility that will offer real-time monitoring of detainees’ vital health metrics.
Just as she had feared, a restaurant owner from eastern Quebec who visited Montreal had her SUV stolen, but says it was all thanks to the kindness of strangers on the internet — not the police — that she got it back.