Since the COVID-19 pandemic, we’ve been living with it for what seems like forever. Given the number of deaths that have occurred from the virus, it was perhaps not surprising that some consumers are turning to drugs not approved or authorized by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
It is FDA’s mandate and duty to carefully evaluate the scientific data on a drug to be sure that it is both safe and effective for a particular use. In some instances, it can be highly dangerous to use a medicine for the prevention or treatment of COVID-19 that has not been approved by or has not received emergency use authorization from the FDA.
There is a growing interest in a drug called Ivermectin for the prevention or treatment of COVID-19 in humans.
The World Health Organization (WHO) released its statement on the anti-parasitic drug Ivermectin.
The drug has become controversial as doctors in several countries such as India, Japan, Peru, Portugal, Slovenia and Zimbabwe began prescribing it as a supplemental treatment for COVID-19.
While there is still no cure for COVID, physicians are prescribing medicines to cure its symptoms and prevent infections from becoming serious or causing death. Many doctors are convinced about the efficacy of this medicine against COVID-19 and they said that Ivermectin had worked for their COVID patients.
With the drastic surge of COVID-19 in the country, the shortage of vaccines, and the exigency of the situation, they say they are ready to do whatever it takes to save lives and prevent serious infection.
They said that the public must be given a choice of alternative treatment, citing the affordability of Ivermectin compared to the approved treatments such as Remdesivir.
While other physicians pointed out that the efficacy of Ivermectin against COVID is still inconclusive and therefore, still questionable-which the WHO has also declared in its advisory on the drug.
The WHO said, however, that the drug can be utilized within clinical trials as a COVID treatment.
The WHO must settle this controversy with firm resolve and steadfastness.
Our national government must also fast track assessment and processing of any application for the importation or manufacture of the human formulation for Ivermectin.
Chinese traditional herbal drugs and lung clearing tea are already widely used as a supplemental treatment for the virus.
If there are other alternative treatments being pushed by doctors themselves, they deserve attention.
In battling a deadly disease with no known cure, every weapon must be wielded and exerted.
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