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- Ivermectin, a deworming drug, has not been approved for use against COVID-19.
- Arkansas inmates told the AP they were not told they had been given ivermectin to treat COVID-19.
- Officials previously said the drug’s use was voluntary.
Inmates at a northwest Arkansas County jail said they were unaware they were being given ivermectin to treat COVID-19, a drug that has not been approved for a use against disease, The Associated Press reported Wednesday.
Three Washington County jail inmates told the AP they were not told the drug was ivermectin, a pest control also used on animals. The Arkansas branch of the American Civil Liberties Union has received similar reports, the AP reported.
“They were pretty much testing us here, that’s all they did, to see if it would work,” said William Evans, a prison inmate who received the drug after testing positive for COVID-19. , according to the AP.
The news comes a week after Washington County Sheriff Tim Helder confirmed the drug had been used to treat COVID-19 in prison, although it was not approved for that use, the Northwest reported. Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
The Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have warned against the misuse of ivermectin to treat COVID-19.
The drug is currently only approved “at very specific doses for certain parasitic worms” and it is “not an antiviral,” according to the FDA. An overdose of ivermectin can lead to seizures, coma and death, the CDC said.
The state medical council launched an investigation into the prison’s drug use last week.
Helder said he was told the drug was being used as a COVID-19 treatment in July by the prison health care provider Karas Correctional Health, the Democrat-Gazette reported.
Washington County Deputy Chief Jay Cantrell said last week that prescriptions for ivermectin were voluntary.
“Everything is voluntary,” he said, according to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. “They can refuse any medication that is offered to them. Even with the vaccine, everything is voluntary.”
But the fact that inmates say they were not told about the drugs contradicts that position, the AP noted.
Dr Robert Karas, owner of Karas Correctional Health and prison doctor, said in a statement to NBC News last week that he has been prescribing the drug since late 2020 to treat patients and inmates with COVID-19 .
ACLU Arkansas called for an end to the practice.
The prescription of ivermectin increased 24 times in August from pre-pandemic levels, according to the CDC. Ivermectin-related calls to U.S. poison control centers have quintupled from baseline, with a slight increase in July, the CDC said in a recent report.
While there is no data to conclusively support the use of ivermectin to reduce illness and death from COVID-19, prominent figures including the senses. Ron Johnson and Rand Paul have promoted the drug as a response to COVID-19. Podcast host Joe Rogan said on Wednesday he took ivermectin to treat his COVID-19 infection.
In a joint statement Wednesday, the American Medical Association, the American Pharmacists Association and the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists said they were “alarmed” by the increase in prescriptions for ivermectin and that they ” strongly opposed “the prescription of the drug to prevent or treat COVID-19[FEMININE[FEMININE
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