BEND, OR — Authorities said Friday that about two dozen people contacted the poison centre in Oregon after self-medicating against COVID-19 with a parasite treatment drug, with five being hospitalised and two ending up in intensive care units.
They used ivermectin, which has no proven use against the coronavirus but is approved to treat some parasites in humans and animals.”COVID-19 is a devastating disease that can be very frightening, but the public does not need — nor should it use — unproven and potentially dangerous drugs to fight it,” said Robert Hendrickson, medical director of Oregon Health & Science University’s Oregon Poison Center.
Previously covered topics:Ivermectin ‘intentional misuse’ spikes in Oregon; FDA warns against COVID drug useBetween August 1 and September 14, the Oregon Poison Center at OHSU handled 25 cases.
Five of those cases required hospitalisation, and two people were in such critical condition that they needed to be admitted to an intensive care unit. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, calls to poison control centres about ivermectin overdoses or exposures have increased fivefold since the pre-pandemic level.
According to the National Institutes of Health, studies indicate that achieving the plasma concentrations required for antiviral efficacy would necessitate the administration of doses of the drug up to 100-fold higher than those approved for human use.According to the Oregon Poison Center, recent cases involved people who were experiencing mental confusion, balance issues, low blood pressure, and seizures.
The patients ranged in age from 20 to 80, with the majority being over 60, and were attempting to either prevent or treat COVID-19. Initial lab research suggested that ivermectin could be used to treat COVID-19, but when tested in human trials, ivermectin did not reduce symptoms or cure the disease, according to OHSU.The Oregon Poison Center is the designated regional poison control centre for Oregon, Alaska, and Guam, and is accredited by the American Association of Poison Control Centers.
According to the Oregon Poison Center, the vast majority of recent cases involving ivermectin misuse have occurred in Oregon.
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