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 (FDA) 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 UIUC 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.
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.
17 Comments
“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
Some researchers have verifies that “viruses” are not found in nature, they’ve always been engineered Nanotechnology-driven Parasites. Inknow someone who had a terrible cough and took 3 daily ivm doses. Gone!
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.
I know of a person who took Ivermectin for horse day after day, for months. He had prostate cancer and also rectal cancer. Refused to take prescribed meds, opted for the horse paste. He recently died with severe bleeding in his lungs, which had nothing to do with his cancer. What is your assessment on this? Thank you.
Probably from the cancer that went undiagnosed, maybe an aneurysm, or pulmonary embolism that could’ve been due to some kind of cardiovascular disease or too close exposures to 5G radio frequencies? Who knows? However, without a proper confirmed diagnosis, we can only guess a number of reasons.
Not likely reasonable to be taking Ivermectin daily for months though, even if dosage level dependent.
know someone who takes ivermectin regularly and now they are entered in the Kentucky Derby race as a hands on favorite to win- oh, and he gets over flues and viruses very quickly
Very sad. Prior to the plandemic, Ivermectin was famous for it’s lack of toxicity, and effectiveness. So much so, it received a Nobel prize. Yet now that government and big pharma want you to grease their skids, it’s the devil…
Stop the political spin on this drug …anyone halting healing of people and making fake claims on this miracle drug could find themselves in legal.trouble in the near future …I’ve known people who have lost their social media accounts already for doing this …I’m nice enough to warn people but really I hope they do loose their accounts because they are slandering a product that helps save lives ….I have spoken it only twice in my life and both times I was very sick …it was the only product that helped !e recover ….be careful of your dose most people only need a eraser size dose …and only need to use it once not days in a row …maybe twice a year at most …I was afraid to try it …but glad I did ….just bought another tube because I’ve been sick for two weeks now …gonna try it again this time …seems to be the only thing that helped all my symtoms
Stop the political spin on this drug …anyone halting healing of people and making fake claims on this miracle drug could find themselves in legal trouble in the near future …I’ve known people who have lost their social media accounts already for doing this …I’m nice enough to warn people but really I hope they do loose their accounts because they are slandering a product that helps save lives ….I have took it only twice in my life and both times I was very sick …it was the only product that helped !e recover ….be careful of your dose most people only need a eraser size dose …and only need to use it once not days in a row …maybe twice a year at most …I was afraid to try it …but glad I did ….just bought another tube because I’ve been sick for two weeks now …gonna try it again this time …seems to be the only thing that helped all my symtoms
My dogs (tiny Chihuahuas) have allergies. The vet prescribed an allergy medicine, very expensive. I checked it and realized it was BENNADRYL. Yes, the EXACT same thing I take for my allergy! You’re going to tell me because the product is for animals it doesn’t have the same property as if it were for humans? Tough!
A long time ago friend of mine, a veterinarian told me that drugs go into clinical trials on animals first before continuing on with humans. We wouldnt want to give contaminated drugs to our pets nor food animals. In the United States drugs whether for humans or animals, all have to go through scrutiny for quality. Although some of stuff coming out of communist China could have contaminants in it, such as pills, liquids, and pastes, but even then they might get checked eventually by our regulators here in the US for metallic contaminations such as lead, mercury, etc. My understanding is that our pets and livestock animals get as quality meds as humans. Now since discovery in the past few years, this being 2023, some recalls have happened from the Chinese manufactured crap due to of the afore noted contaminants and rarely wrong concentrations. Vaccines, and mRNA formulas are a whole other matter that allows some of those metals in at certain concentrations, not to say that the afore-noted are not, also.