Jakarta – “You guys are not horses. You are not cows. This is serious for all of you. Stop it!”
It was a brief warning posted by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA – Food and Drug Administration) United States (USA), on its Twitter account on Saturday, August 21, 2021, about Ivermectin, an anti-parasitic drug for livestock that has been used by some as a Covid-19 treatment.
“The FDA has received numerous reports of patients requiring medical assistance and being hospitalized after self-medicating with ivermectin intended for horses,” the agency said on its website.
The FDA warning comes a day after the Mississippi Department of Health said on its website that it “has been receiving increasing numbers of calls from individuals with potential exposure to ivermectin used to treat or prevent Covid-19 infection.”
Illustration: The FDA ordered that the use of the livestock drug Ivermectin as a Covid-19 drug be stopped (Photo: voaindonesia.com/Reuters)
“At least 70% of recent phone calls were related to the consumption of Ivermectin, a formula for livestock or animals, purchased at supply stores for livestock,” the health department said.
It reported, “about “85% of callers experienced mild symptoms, but one person was instructed to undergo further testing because of the amount of ivermectin he ingested.”
“There is a lot of misinformation about this, and you may have heard that there is nothing wrong with taking large doses of ivermectin,” the FDA says on its website. “That is wrong.”
On Monday, the FDA reportedly will give full approval for the Pfizer-made Covid-19 vaccine (lt/jm) /voaindonesia.com. []
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