Arushi Bidhuri
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Written By: Arushi Bidhuri | Updated : August 23, 2021 11:30 AM IST
The US Food and Drug Administration has expressed concerns over the use of the anti-parasitic drug, ivermectin to treat Covid-19. Ivermectin is a medicine that is prescribed to treat parasitic roundworm infestations. "You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Seriously, y'all. Stop it," the FDA said in a tweet on Saturday.
As per the latest update by the New York Times, the new warning comes a day after the Mississippi State Department of Health made a similar statement in response to concerns that an increasing number of people in Mississippi were taking the medication to avoid a Covid infection.
Ivermectin is not an antiviral (a medication that treats viruses), but it has been authorised for several parasitic diseases including intestinal strongyloidiasis and onchocerciasis, head lice, and skin disorders like rosacea at very precise dosages.
According to FDA, "At least 70 per cent of the recent calls have been related to ingestion of livestock or animal formulations of ivermectin purchased at livestock supply centres." They further explained that animal medicines are highly concentrated for huge animals and can be very harmful to humans. Some of the symptoms linked with ivermectin poisoning include rash, nausea, vomiting, stomach discomfort, neurologic problems, and possibly severe hepatitis necessitating hospitalization.
In a statement, WHO's chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan also warned against the use of the drug for treating Covid-19. The report emphasized the lack of evidence on the efficacy and safety of the drug. Their analysis has identified "no scientific basis for a potential therapeutic effect against COVID-19 from pre-clinical studies; no meaningful evidence for a clinical activity or clinical efficacy in patients with COVID-19 disease, and a concerning lack of safety data in the majority of studies."
This is not the first time that health authorities have warned against the use of this anti-parasitic drug. The World Health Organization also advised against using ivermectin to treat Covid patients in March. According to the WHO, Ivermectin's effects on death, hospital admission, and getting rid of the virus from the body have a "very low certainty of evidence."
According to the National Institutes of Health's (NIH) Covid-19 treatment guidelines, "there is insufficient evidence for the Covid-19 Treatment Guidelines Panel (the Panel) to recommend either for or against the use of ivermectin for the treatment of Covid-19."
On the other hand, Ivermectin has been prescribed by doctors and used by self-medicating persons in nations such as Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, and South Africa. Regarding this, FDA said that it has not evaluated data to support the use of ivermectin to treat or prevent Covid-19 in patients. "Taking a drug for an unapproved use can be very dangerous. This is true of ivermectin, too. There's a lot of misinformation around, and you may have heard that it's okay to take large doses of ivermectin. That is wrong,"
(with inputs from IANS)
