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The debate over the use of Ivermectin to treat COVID-19 is a heated one.

In amongst the noise, what is perhaps most important to remember is that results from the largest Ivermectin trial yet “found no statistically significant benefit from ivermectin but possible harm from the drug”.

Just last week, a study showing that the anti-parasitic drug played a significant role in reducing the risk of COVID-19 infection, hospitalisation, and death was withdrawn after serious flaws were found.

Then there’s Dr Emmanuel Taban, a pulmonologist at Mediclinic Midstream in Midrand, who has issued a “stark warning” regarding Ivermectin use.

TimesLIVE reports:

[He] wrote that two out of every three patients now being admitted to the hospital were taking ivermectin which, he added, offered “no benefit at all”.

While 80% of the patients admitted to the clinic during the first wave were black, of the 102 patients now admitted, 92 are white as a third wave of infections continues to roil across SA.

“Most of these patients have been taking ivermectin which was prescribed by doctors and as a result they feel protected,” he said.

He warned  that people using the drug — which is an anti-parasitic medication meant for animals — believed they were safe from contracting Covid-19 which in turn led to unsafe behaviour such as not wearing masks or sanitising their hands.

Some 90% of the patients using the drug, had presented with liver damage, he added.

Taban added that Ivermectin is “not intended for use by humans” and strongly encouraged doctors prescribing its use to stop doing so.

This week, the SA Health Products Regulatory Authority (Sahpra), along with the Department of Health, has been forced to clarify that a report that Ivermectin has been registered as a medicine in South Africa is “fake news”.

An image did the rounds on social media, purporting to show a recent story from SABC News claiming Ivermectin had been approved for use.

That was not the case (it was an old, out of context screenshot), and serves as another reminder of why you shouldn’t believe forwarded and shared images without checking. In this case, that would entail searching for the story itself.

Taban says that the sharing of this misinformation is claiming lives:

“My heart breaks at the suffering of these people because they are being misled by social media,” said the Sudanese-born doctor who is famous for trekking from war-torn Sudan to Johannesburg and putting himself through medical school.

“There is no prophylactic medication available for Covid-19 except vaccination.”

That’s it.

Vaccination is our only way out of this.

Register, book your jab, and encourage others to do so.

[source:timeslive]