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Demand has surged for ivermectin, a drug widely given to horses and cows to treat worms and other parasitic infections, as a possible treatment or preventative for COVID-19 . Some seekers have turned to over-the-counter animal formulations, despite Food and Drug Administration warnings against their use, resulting in a spike in calls to poison control centers. Dr. Jim Lowe, a professor of veterinary clinical medicine at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and an expert on infectious diseases and agricultural animals, spoke with News Bureau biomedical sciences editor Liz Ahlberg Touchstone about ivermectin, the differences between forms intended for animals and the approved human prescription, and the risks of accidental overdose.

What is ivermectin? What does it treat?

Ivermectin is parasiticide, meaning it kills parasites. It’s a very broad-spectrum parasiticide that can treat internal parasites, like worms, or can be applied topically to treat mange or lice. It was first used to treat heartworm in dogs and now has broad uses in the animal world, and is used extensively in horses and food animals like cows and swine. It is used in people as well, primarily to treat river blindness, a parasitic infection of the eye in tropical parts of the world.

As you mentioned, ivermectin is available for humans as a prescription. However, ivermectin intended for animals is widely available. How are the animal forms different?

The active ingredient of ivermectin is the same in all forms. The differences are in the formulation and how it’s delivered. The human prescription is generally a tablet that is swallowed. Animal products come in a variety of forms. For example, the product we use in cattle and pigs is injectable, and the dewormer used in horses is a concentrated paste. These tend to come in quite large doses, compared with a single human tablet. We certainly do not want people to take any form of a drug intended for animals.

Taking large or multiple doses of the anti-parasitic drug ivermectin can cause a toxic overdose, and humans should not take forms intended for animal use, says Illinois veterinary medicine expert Dr. Jim Lowe. Credit: Photo by Greg Boozell

Does ivermectin have anti-viral properties as well as anti-parasitic ones?

All of the drug compounds that we use are foreign chemicals to the body, and they all do more than just what they’re intended to do, so in theory it could have some anti-viral activity. However, we don’t see evidence that it’s clinically valuable as an anti-viral, as we don’t see direct impacts on viruses in the way that we would with other anti-viral drugs, such as those used to treat influenza.

Is there a problem with taking any form of ivermectin as a preventative or treatment to COVID-19?

The challenge is toxicity. Toxicity can come from taking too much in a single dose, but the bigger issue is the cumulative dosing with taking the drug for multiple days in a row. Ivermectin is labeled for a single-use dosage in both humans and animals. Whether treating a person for river blindness or a horse for worms, it’s intended to be given once and not multiple times. It stays active in the body for a length of time. If someone takes ivermectin day after day or week after week, as one might with an anti-viral or antibiotic, the dosage builds up in the body to toxic levels. Even with the human form, if someone takes one dose for 10 days in a row, they end up with 10 times the recommended dose, which can certainly cause toxic effects and overdosing.

What are some of the possible side effects of taking too much ivermectin?

There haven’t been a lot of studies of overdosing in humans, but in animals, we do know that when there is an accidental multiple dosing or overdosing, it can be neurotoxic – causing neurological effects like seizures and blindness. The FDA has cautioned that it can cause gastrointestinal symptoms as well as neurological ones, and can interact with other medications.

If someone is in possession of ivermectin and wishes to dispose of it, what should they do?

Drug disposal is regulated state by state, so check your state’s recommended approach. In Illinois, the recommended way to dispose of medication is to remove it from its container, mix it with something inedible like sand or kitty litter, put it in a sealed container, and throw it in the garbage. Do not put it down the drain or the toilet. Some pharmacies also have drug disposal services.

“Surprisingly, ivermectin treatment did not limit viral replication, as treated and non-treated animals presented similar amounts of SARS-CoV-2 in the nasal cavity and in the lungs.

Impact The results of this study establish that irrespective of viral load, the symptoms and severity of COVID-19 highlight the critical role played by host inflammatory response in COVID-19 severity and highlight that reduced type I/III interferon and Il-6/Il-10 and the presence of M2 macrophages might account for a more favorable clinical presentation, contributing to a better understanding of COVID-19 pathophysiology. Ivermectin might then be considered as promising therapeutic agent against COVID-19 with no impact on SARS-CoV-2 replication but alleviating inflammation and ensuing symptoms.”

https://www.embopress.org/doi/full/10.15252/emmm.202114122

Thank you for pointing out that it is NEVER good to overdose on any medication or substance. Best wishes to ACTIV-6/NIH in their repurposed drug trial featuring ivermectin, fluvoxamine, metformin, etc. for use as early treatment in Covid-19. May science continue to uncover ivermectin’s many mechanisms of action. It truly is The People’s Medicine. It cannot do it alone but is a useful component of one’s Covid toolkit.

https://journal.chestnet.org/article/S0012-3692(20)34898-4/fulltext The Journal CHEST/ivermectin

https://openheart.bmj.com/content/8/1/e001655 OpenHeart BMJ journal/ivermectin

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41429-021-00430-5?fbclid=IwAR3DPkPFR_rucxViUNaYLf28nfezENl1FSvW0mr8UG8Loocxr5YiX2PKMQM Nature.com

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0166354220302011

Funny. The fda approved the use of the drug for treating ebola, HIV, zika, West Nile and many other untreatable viruses. Kinda sounds like you are repeating false information being spread around regarding ivemectin… which, by the way, was discovered in Japan in a soil sample and was claimed as a miracle drug, yes drug, when they first began testing it..

I find it both amusing and sad to see how, before 2019, a drug THAT was considered very safe with low toxicity has somehow been transformed into a danger to humanity. Maybe it’s time for those that write these articles ACTUALY KNOW HOW TO research the subject of which they write. People are depending that the information given is true and accurate. Stop the spin. If one searched scientific articles on ivermectin before the insanity of 2019, you would find actual information without the current political agenda and spin. Example: In 2002 this article appeared the Journal of Clinical Pharmacology J Clin Pharmacol. 2002 Oct;42(10):1122-33.doi: 10.1177/009127002401382731. “Safety, tolerability, and pharmacokinetics of escalating high doses of ivermectin in healthy adult subjects” Cynthia A Guzzo 1 , Christine I Furtek, Arturo G Porras, Cong Chen, Robert Tipping, Coleen M Clineschmidt, David G Sciberras, John Y K Hsieh, Kenneth C Lasseter “Safety assessments addressed both known ivermectin CNS effects and general toxicity. The primary safety endpoint was mydriasis, accurately quantitated by pupillometry. Ivermectin was generally well tolerated, with no indication of associated CNS toxicity for doses up to 10 times the highest FDA-approved dose of 200 microg/kg. All dose regimens had a mydriatic effect similar to placebo. Adverse experiences were similar between ivermectin and placebo and did not increase with dose.” Their conclusion is “ This study demonstrated that ivermectin is generally well tolerated at these higher doses and more frequent regimens.” A July 1999 article in the Annals of Emergency Medicine: Agricultural Avermectins: An Uncommon But Potentially Fatal Cause of Pesticide Poisoning” KongChungMD*Chen-ChangYangMD‡Ming-LingWuMD‡Jou-FangDengMD‡Wei-JengTsaiMD‡ Conclusion: Ingestion of a large dose of avermectin may be associated with life-threatening coma, hypotension, and subsequent aspiration….. : An uncommon but potentially fatal cause of pesticide poisoning. Ann Emerg Med July 1999;34:51-57.] (Note: The death reported was from the use of avermectin (i.e a combination of ivermectin and abamectin) which is sold as an insecticide. Another article written in 2018 in part appraised ivermectin’s toxicity. Am J Cancer Res. 2018; 8(2): 317–331.Published online 2018 Feb 1. PMCID: PMC5835698 PMID: 29511601 “The multitargeted drug ivermectin: from an antiparasitic agent to a repositioned cancer drug” authored by Mandy Juarez,1 Alejandro Schcolnik-Cabrera,1 and Alfonso Dueñas-Gonzalez2 Part of the article reviewed overdoses of ivermectin. They found that the potentially lethal dose was a human equivalent dose of 43240 ug/kg which far are exceeds the dose for ivermectin of 200 ug/kg. This means a 150lb person would need to consume 980 three 3 mg tablets or almost 25 complete tubes of ivermectin paste (6.07 gm @ 1.87% ivermectin) to approach a lethal dose. (Actually that dose assumes that 50 % of people taking that dose would die.) That folks, is an attempt at suicide….. not an accidental overdose. “In conclusion, the immense number of patients who have been treated with ivermectin shows that it is a safe and a well-tolerated drug.” Politics has NO business in pharmacology. The truth is the truth. In healthcare those that refuse to do their due diligence reporting the actual facts is spewing shear chicanery and should be appalled by their behavior. Our patients need to know the truth so they can decide a course of treatment that both they and their doctor can agree on.. I could go on but as once told to me by a US Marine combat veteran, “You can’t fix stupid”. I will not attempt to fix anything but, only to warn the reader that in this era of political and therapeutic insanity, one MUST verify don’t just comply

Judging from the numbaers of people dying from this experimental poison shot that’s not even for covid at all as it’s a spike protein drug and the mortalitiy rate is being hidden from the people…Id say anything that’s ivermectin in any form is safe compared to death from this Bill Gates population reducer.

obviously this article is pretty much propaganda since everywhere in the world that ivermectin and hydro is used it has been found to work . also not too many years ago the nih had a paper about it on their website . apparently the focus is on killing as many people with the bioweapons as possible . the covid and the fauci treatment means death for most and the clot shot means death for probably 62% of those that get it .

FAMILY MEMBER TOOK 3 BOOSTER SHOTS FOR COVIT AND IN 3 MONTHS IT DEVASTED HIS IMMUNE SYSTEM AND HE HAD LIVER AND KIDNEY FAILURE AND BLOWED UP LIKE A BALONE IN HIS LEGS AND GROIN AREA, DIED ABOUT 2 MONTH LATER. HAD NO PROBLEMS TILL TOOK COVID 19 BOOSTER THIS BS DRUG KILLED YOUR IMMUNE SYSTEM MOST ALL WHO TAKE IT GET COVID ALL WHO HAVE TAKEN THE SHOTS AND BOOSTER IN FAMIL GOT COVIT SOME DIED OTHERS NO PROBLEMS DID NOT TAKE THIS BS POISION.

BTW, I’m NOT anti-vax. I’ve been fully vaccinated and spent 2 weeks in the hospital with covid My wife has had covid twice, once after being fully vaccinated (why after having natural immunity?). I’m still on Oxygen!!! I believe the vaccine shortened my stay in the hospital but they really don’t have anything for you once you are hospitalized. If I were in a 2nd or 3rd world country, I’d be dead right now!