Is deworming Ivermectin currently considered a safe, effective treatment for COVID-19?

SAN ANTONIO – – You may have seen posts about the medication Ivermectin on social media. It was also a topic raised during a Senate committee hearing.

There is currently a question across the country: is the dewormer Ivermectin safe and effective to use as a COVID-19 treatment?

We led the question through our KSAT Trust Index, where our teams consult physicians, researchers, and experts on topics such as these.

‘It’s a dewormer, so it’s used a lot in pets. We do not have as many worm infections in the United States, but when people travel to resource-poor places, it is approved for the treatment of worms in humans as well, “said Dr. Jason Bowling, a hospital epidemiologist at the University Hospital, who also works, said UT Health San Antonio.

Ivermectin is one of the drugs that showed a positive response in laboratories earlier this year for the treatment of SARS CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

However, testing in humans has just begun and the National Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Administration specifically state that it is not yet approved or safe for the prevention or treatment of COVID-19.

“I agree with the NIH’s recommendation that this be done in a trial where they are closely monitoring,” Bowling said.

Bowling calls Ivermectin promising, but is concerned to hear that doctors prescribe it outside the prescription, or that some people even take medications that are prescribed to pets.

“The problem is that if you take the amount of Ivermectin they use in these plates into the lab, it’s ten times higher than the dose approved for humans,” he said. ‘Ivermectin is usually well tolerated, but when people have an inflammatory condition like you with COVID infection, it can be neurotoxic, side effects with your central nervous system. So you are not going to reach the levels they have reached in the lab without worrying more about side effects. ‘

Dr Bowling said there was no way to determine safe doses, possible side effects and natural efficacy without completing current clinical trials specifically for COVID-19.

For this reason, the statement that ‘Ivermectin is currently considered a safe and effective treatment for COVID-19’, combined with a lack of FDA approval or authorization for emergency use, is marked on our KSAT Trust Index.

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