The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is warning against using the anti-parasitic drug ivermectin to treat or prevent COVID-19 after rapid spikes in the number of prescriptions being filled as well as increases in hospitalizations and calls to poison control.
The agency issued the alert Thursday, warning that the drug’s adverse effects range from severe nausea to death.
Ivermectin is used to treat parasites in humans and large animals. It has not been approved to treat or prevent COVID-19, the potentially deadly respiratory disease caused by the highly contagious coronavirus.
Pharmacies filled more than 88,000 prescriptions for the drug during the week ending Aug. 13, the CDC said, a roughly 24-fold increase from the 3,600 prescriptions that were being dispensed each week before the coronavirus pandemic started in early 2020.
The CDC said the number of calls made to poison control centers last month involving human exposure to ivermectin was up five-fold compared to the period before the coronavirus pandemic.
The agency also highlighted a number of recent examples of Americans being hospitalized after becoming severely ill from taking ivermectin because they falsely believed it would treat or prevent COVID-19.
Adverse effects of ivermectin overdose include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, decreased consciousness, confusion, hallucinations, seizures, coma and death, the CDC said in its latest health advisory.
“Be aware that currently, ivermectin has not been proven as a way to prevent or treat COVID-19,” the CDC said in the advisory, adding vaccines are the “safest and most effective way” to protect against the virus.
The warning comes after a similar advisory from the Food and Drug Administration.
“You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Seriously, y’all. Stop it,” the agency said Saturday on social media.
The FDA this week fully authorized the use of a vaccine made by Pfizer and BioNTech to prevent COVID-19.
