Researchers at the Federal University of Alagoas (Ufal) alerted, in August this year, to the inadvertent and improper consumption of the antiparasitic ivermectin. The drug is part of the so-called “Covid kit”, without offering any benefit in the treatment or prevention of coronavirus infection. In an article, researchers from the Center for Studies in Pharmacotherapy (NEF) analyzed cases of human scabies (scabies) resistant to ivermectin, a drug used for this type of disease.
“Our article hypothesizes that we could have problems with resistant scabies outbreaks, due to the irrational use of ivermectin. The outbreak is set, as there is a rapid increase in cases of itchy skin lesions and other symptoms”, says teacher Sabrina Neves, one of the authors of the work, in a statement released on Friday (26). She refers to an outbreak of more than 250 cases of rash and itching of unknown origin being investigated in Pernambuco.
“There is still no diagnosis of the disease that is causing the outbreak. Some hypotheses of etiology [origem] are being tested, among them is the scabies raised by the article”.
The authors note that ivermectin consumption increased nearly tenfold during the pandemic. “The irrational use of medications is a public health problem, however, in the case of antibiotics, antiparasitic and antifungal drugs, this problem takes on greater proportions. When we use drugs irrationally/incorrectly, such as ivermectin, we run the risk of inducing the parasite’s resistance to the drug that should treat the disease caused by it”, concludes Sabrina.
– .
