Using anti-parasitic drug Ivermectin to treat COVID-19 dangerous — DOH, FDA - Philstar.com

---

Using anti-parasitic drug Ivermectin to treat COVID-19 dangerous — DOH, FDA - Philstar.com Posted: 16 Mar 2021 10:16 PM PDT (Philstar.com) - March 17, 2021 - 1:16pm MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health and the Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday that people should not use Ivermectin, a drug typically used to treat parasites, as a treatment for COVID-19. "Ivermectin is NOT APPROVED by the FDA for treatment of any viral infection," the announcement read. In an advisory, the regulatory agency said Ivermectin products in the country for human use are in topical formulations under prescription use only. The drug is used for treatment of external parasites such as head lice and rosacea, a skin condition that causes redness and visible blood vessels in the face. Meanwhile, registered veterinary products are only approved for use for the prevention of heartworm disease and treatment of internal and external parasites in certain animal species. The FDA said that using animal drugs like Ivermectin in humans can cause serious harm as these are "often highly concentrated and can be highly toxic to humans." "Any use of Ivermectin veterinary products for the prevention or treatment of COVID-19 should be avoided as the benefits and safety for this purpose has not been established," it said, adding that clinical trials are needed to determine whether the drug is safe and effective in treat or preventing COVID-19. Although mandated to regulate the use and sale of medical products, the FDA has failed to hold anybody to account for the unauthorized use of smuggled Sinopharm vaccines by the president's security detail last year, an incident that experts said could set a bad precedent. The Palace as well as President Rodrigo Duterte excused the illegal vaccination while Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said that it was justified. The DOH earlier issued a warning to doctors who will prescribe the drug as remedy for COVID-19. Doctors and researchers around the world have been using off-label drugs or those meant for other illnesses to treat COVID-19 patients. To date, COVID-19 has infected over 31,000 people, including 12,848 deaths. — Gaea Katreena Cabico

FDA warns against using anti-parasitic drug for Covid-19 after reports of hospitalizations - KDRV Posted: 05 Mar 2021 12:00 AM PST The US Food and Drug Administration on Friday said that people should not use ivermectin to attempt to treat or prevent Covid-19. The drug is typically used to treat parasites, such as lice and scabies. "There seems to be a growing interest in a drug called ivermectin to treat humans with COVID-19. Ivermectin is often used in the U.S. to treat or prevent parasites in animals. The FDA has received multiple reports of patients who have required medical support and been hospitalized after self-medicating with ivermectin intended for horses," the agency's announcement said on Friday. The announcement noted that the FDA has not approved ivermectin to treat or prevent Covid-19 in humans and the drug is not an anti-viral medication. "Taking large doses of this drug is dangerous and can cause serious harm," the announcement said, noting that even levels of ivermectin approved for other uses can interact with other medications, such as blood thinners. "You can also overdose on ivermectin, which can cause nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, hypotension (low blood pressure), allergic reactions (itching and hives), dizziness, ataxia (problems with balance), seizures, coma and even death." The announcement comes just a day after new research published in the medical journal JAMA that found ivermectin did not seem to "significantly improve" the time needed for symptoms to get better among patients with Covid-19. In January, the National Institutes of Health's Treatment Guidelines Panel said that there is not enough data to recommend for or against the drug to treat Covid-19 patients. The drug is a cheap medication with anti-inflammatory properties and it seemed to stop the virus from replicating in lab studies -- but more research is needed to determine how the drug performs against Covid-19 in real life. In the JAMA study based in Cali, Colombia, nearly 500 adults with mild disease who had symptoms for seven days, volunteered to help test the drug. The trial is what's known as a double-blind randomized control trial, the gold-standard of trials. Half the volunteers received the drug for five days, the other half got a placebo, and standard care. Patients were enrolled in the trial between July 2020 and November 2020 and doctors followed up with them through December. At the end of the trial, there were a nearly equal number of adverse events -- mostly headache -- in both groups of volunteers. The patients who got the drug said their symptoms subsided by 10 days. For the group that got the placebo, it was 12 days. Two days was not considered a "significant" improvement. "The findings do not support the use of ivermectin for treatment of mild COVID-19," wrote the researchers, based in Colombia. The study adds that larger trials may be needed to better understand if ivermectin provides any other kind of benefit to patients with Covid-19. In this case, the study focused on symptoms and mild disease.

You are subscribed to email updates from "How do you treat parasites" - Google News. To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Google, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, United States