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Cases of Ivermectin overdose rise in US as misinformation fuels demand for controversial drug

Use of Ivermectin has been controversial as a treatment for some time now due to lack of clinical evidence supporting it as a Covid treatment.

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New Delhi: Misinformation on treatments and the effects of vaccinations have been driving up cases of Ivermectin overdose in parts of the US, despite overwhelming evidence suggesting that the drug is not useful as a Covid therapy.

Hospitals in the US are overwhelmed to such an extent by the overdose cases that gunshot victims have been struggling for treatment.

The use of Ivermectin — a drug that is approved for use in animals and humans for treating worms — has been controversial as a treatment for some time now due to lack of clinical evidence supporting its use in humans to treat the SARS-CoV-2 virus. However, doctors across the world, including in India, had backed the medicine because it was cheap and initial studies had hinted that it may help treat Covid.

But experts now widely agree that Ivermectin is not useful in treating Covid.

Despite this, the use of Ivermectin has picked up, especially among people in the US who believe that the vaccine has life-threatening side effects.

Matthew Payne, a doctor at Stillwater Medical Center in Oklahoma, told The Washington Post that he regularly encounters Covid-19 patients in his hospital who say they had feared Covid vaccines and thought they had found a safer approach in Ivermectin.

The situation even compelled the US FDA, the country’s apex drug authority, to put out a tweet last month which said, “You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Seriously, y’all. Stop it.”

The FDA has also repeatedly put out informative articles explaining the reason why people should not indiscriminately take Ivermectin pills when they had Covid.

The effects of Ivermectin overdose include fatigue, skin itchiness, stomach pain, nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea. In some cases, the side effects may be more severe such as shortness of breath, inability to control bowel movements and trouble standing or walking.


Also read: Why Covid drug Ivermectin remains popular despite warnings & lack of evidence on efficacy


Studies backing Ivermectin have been criticised 

Initial lab studies at Monash University in Australia had found that the drug can reduce viral loads in cells within two hours. Experts, however, said that the levels of the drug used in these studies were not safe for human consumption.

A review article published in the American Journal of Therapeutics has been used by US physicians Pierre Kory, Paul E. Marik, and others to support the use of Ivermectin.

However, an earlier version of the article had been rejected by another journal due to “a series of strong, unsupported claims based on studies with insufficient statistical significance”.

Moreover, US physician Marik has had a chequered medical history. He has been discredited for claiming to have found the cure for sepsis using a combination of hormones and vitamins. A review of trials using this protocol last month could not confirm the benefits of this treatment.

In March this year, Marik was reprimanded by the Virginia Board of Medicine and ordered to complete additional education in prescribing practices after it was found he had prescribed drugs to people who were not his patients.


Also read: Mu — the latest SARS-CoV-2 ‘variant of interest’ first found in Colombia


 

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