As India is in the grasp of a devastating second wave of COVID-19, World Health Organisation (WHO) Chief Scientist Soumya Swaminathan on Monday recommended against the general use of 'ivermectin' - an orally-administered drug used to treat parasitic infections - for treatment of COVID-19 patients.
According to the World Health Organization, 'ivermectin' is not safe to treat in corona patients. Soumya Swaminathan tweeted, "safety and efficacy are important when using any drug for a new indication. @WHO recommends against the use of ivermectin for #COVID19 except within clinical trials".In February this year, Merck published a report on the use of the drug ivermectin in corona patients. According to the clinical trial, no findings of this drug have been found that this drug works effectively on patients. Scientists from the company also said that data on how safe the drug is in clinical trials is not available.
In the United States, the drug is called STROMECTOL. These drugs are claimed to have many side effects. This is the second WHO warning against 'ivermectin' in the past two months.
Dr Swaminathan's tweet today comes a day after Goa approved use of 'ivermectin' as preventive treatment for all adults against the SARS-CoV2 virus that causes the COVID-19 disease.