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BEND, Oregon (AP) – Dozens of people in Oregon have contacted the state’s poison control center after self-medicating for COVID-19 with a drug used to treat the parasites, five of whom have been hospitalized and two of them ended up in intensive care units, authorities said on Friday.
The drug they used was ivermectin, which has no proven use against the coronavirus and is instead approved to treat certain parasites in humans and some animals.
“COVID-19 is a devastating disease and can be very frightening, but the public does not need to use – nor should they use – unproven and potentially dangerous drugs to fight it,” said Robert Hendrickson, medical director of Oregon Poison. Oregon Health & Science University Center.
Between August 1 and September 14, the Oregon Poison Center at OHSU handled a total of 25 cases. Five of those cases involved hospitalization and two people were so seriously ill that they had to be admitted to an intensive care unit.
Across the country, calls to poison control centers about ivermectin overdoses or exposures have quintupled from pre-pandemic levels, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Studies suggest that obtaining the plasma concentrations necessary for antiviral efficacy would require administration of doses of the drug up to 100 times those approved for use in humans, the National Institutes of Health said.
The Oregon Poison Center said its recent cases involved people with mental confusion, problems with balance, low blood pressure and seizures. The patients were between 20 and 80 years old, most over 60, and trying to prevent or treat COVID-19.
Early lab research indicated that ivermectin may be able to treat COVID-19, but when tested in human trials, ivermectin did not decrease symptoms or cure the disease, said the OHSU.
The Oregon Poison Center is accredited by the American Association of Poison Control Centers and is the designated regional poison control center for Oregon, Alaska, and Guam. All of the recent cases involving ivermectin have occurred in Oregon, the center said.
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