Maine pharmacists report ivermectin prescriptions from people seeking drug for COVID-19

The Maine Board of Pharmacy said this week that there has been an increase in the number of prescriptions for ivermectin and reiterated that the drug is not approved for use to prevent or treat COVID-19.

An IverCare brand package containing a syringe of ivermectin – a medicine used to kill worms and other parasites – intended for use only in horses. Health experts and medical groups are working to eliminate the growing use of the antiparasitic drug to treat COVID-19. Associated press / Ted S. Warren

For humans, ivermectin has been approved to treat “infections caused by certain parasitic worms, head lice, and skin conditions like rosacea,” the board said in a notice to pharmacists, but it doesn’t has not been approved to treat illness caused by the coronavirus. .

But that hasn’t stopped people seeking COVID-19 treatment from trying to use the drug, which is also used to deworm horses and cattle. Side effects of taking the drug include headache, muscle pain, dizziness, nausea, diarrhea, and rash.

Ivermectin has been touted by people who believe COVID-19 vaccines have not been thoroughly checked and represent an overreaction, along with face masks. Earlier in the pandemic, similar claims were made about other drugs such as hydroxychloroquine, which has been promoted online and in social media as being effective in combating COVID even though the claims have been refuted by health officials, who have said the vaccine is the best way to prevent the virus and lessen its effects if someone does contract the disease.

Tom Edge, the retail pharmacy director at Pen Bay Medical Center in Rockport, said he had refused to fill six prescriptions for ivermectin in the past month.

Typically, ivermectin is rarely used on humans, Edge said, and he has only filled three legitimate prescriptions for the drug in the past year. The most recent prescriptions he received were from out-of-state doctors, he said, “which is always a bit of a red flag anyway.”

When he searched for a prescriber online, Edge found a list of doctors that people can call and, for a fee, get a consultation over the phone, then a prescription for ivermectin.

US CDC HEALTH ALERT

A health alert issued by the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in late August indicated that the distribution of ivermectin in retail pharmacies in the United States increased from an average of 3,600 per week before the pandemic to 39,000 per week in January. And since then, ivermectin distribution has continued to increase, reaching more than 88,000 prescriptions per week as of mid-August, the agency said.

The ivermectin prescriptions that Edge refused to fill required using the drug for a longer period of time than normally prescribed, he said. For treatment, the dose was double the typical amount and also for a longer period, he said.

“We can’t fill an order based on what someone has on a website,” he said. “We can refuse any prescription that we believe is not being used for a legitimate purpose. “

When he contacted the doctors who wrote the prescriptions and was told he was meant to ward off or treat COVID, Edge told them he would not fill the prescription.

“At this point it’s a quick conversation,” he said.

Edge said the advice from the pharmacy board gave him and other pharmacists “a little something to fall back on” if a customer complained about the refusal to fill the prescription.

Even in the form intended for human use, Edge said, the side effects of ivermectin can include central nervous system problems, diarrhea, nausea, low white blood cell counts “and a lot of nasty things. “.

Janelle Tirrell, veterinarian in Palermo, said ivermectin is a very effective dewormer for her patients at Third Coast Equine, but “I wouldn’t recommend it to any human. It would never occur to me.

Tirrell said she was surprised to see that it has become popular among some as an alternative to COVID vaccines because the ivermectin paste it provides to its horses will “literally eat away at the intestines” of people who take it.

“It’s even cruder than what I’m describing,” Tirrell said.

In an average year, the Northern New England Poison Center said it would record eight cases in Maine of people coming into contact with ivermectin. Typically, he says, these cases involve children who inadvertently gained access to the drug, people who accidentally took two doses of the prescribed ivermectin, or people who got it in their eyes or in their mouths. when trying to administer it to an animal.

INCREASED CALLS TO THE POISON CENTER

So far this year, there have already been eight cases of human exposure to ivermectin in Maine, the center said, and four appeared to involve people taking ivermectin to prevent or treat COVID. One of those cases occurred in March and three in September, the center said.

Nationally, the center said, about one in ten people who take ivermectin inappropriately have serious side effects from the drug.

In its report last month, the CDC said calls for human exposure to ivermectin at poison control centers across the country were five times higher in July than they were before the pandemic.

In some cases, the CDC said, people were taking ivermectin intended for veterinary use on large animals, such as horses, sheep and cattle.

These doses “can be very concentrated and lead to overdoses when used by humans,” the CDC said, and veterinary products may also contain ingredients that have not been evaluated in humans.

“People who take excessively high doses of ivermectin above the dosage recommended by the FDA may experience toxic effects,” the report says, and suffer from the symptoms cited by Edge, as well as decreased awareness, confusion, hallucinations, convulsions, coma and even death.

The report states that an adult drank an injectable formulation of ivermectin intended for use in cattle and had to be hospitalized for nine days before recovering.

Edge, the director of the Pen Bay pharmacy, said he had not discussed ivermectin prescriptions with colleagues in the state, but “it wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest if people see it. any further”.

He said the state council’s statement this week is a good reminder that they must make sure all prescriptions are for a legitimate drug with proven efficacy in treating illnesses.

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