The Food and Drug Administration is warning Americans against using ivermectin, a drug that kills parasites, to treat COVID-19.
“Taking large doses of this drug is dangerous and can cause serious harm,” the FDA said Friday.
Ivermectin is used to treat head lice and some skin conditions like rosacea in humans, and is used to treat internal and external parasitic infections in animals.
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Some researchers have touted ivermectin as a potential treatment for COVID-19 throughout the pandemic, but the jury is still out on whether it is an effective treatment.
The National Institutes of Health explains that “ivermectin docking may interfere with the attachment of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) spike protein to the human cell membrane.”
Australian researchers found in June that ivermectin inhibited the replication of SARS-CoV-2 in a petri dish, but this effect has not been replicated in actual…