Coronavirus: Australia warns against ivermectin use as imports of drug increase tenfold
- Some residents are using encrypted messaging services and other online platforms to find black-market stores and doctors who will prescribe the antiparasitic
- The trend, which has also been reported in countries including Indonesia and India, comes even as the WHO has said efficacy of the drug is ‘inconclusive’
As the highly infectious Delta strain of Covid-19 continues to spread through Australia, some residents have turned to an antiparasitic drug that is not approved for treating the coronavirus in Australia or any other OECD country.
Some people are using encrypted messaging services and other online platforms to share links to black-market stores and local doctors who will prescribe ivermectin, which is commonly used to treat illnesses such as scabies and roundworm infections in both humans and animals.
Guardian Australia this week reported that pharmacies in the country had been seeing a rise in the number of people arriving with prescriptions for ivermectin.
The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) recently announced that there had been a tenfold increase in imports of ivermectin. The government agency said it “strongly discourages self-medication and self-dosing with ivermectin for Covid-19 as it may be dangerous to your health”.
A Covid-19 patient was recently hospitalised in Sydney’s Westmead hospital after overdosing on a cocktail of ivermectin and other unapproved treatments that they ordered online.
Don’t look for magic cures online, and don’t rely on what’s being peddled on the internet
The hospital’s toxicologist said the case was part of a trend of people self-treating with unproven drugs.
