- Judge Gregory Howard ordered West Chester Hospital to treat Julie Smith’s husband Jeffrey Smith with ivermectin.
- The National Institutes of Health stated that there is insufficient evidence to “support or oppose the use of ivermectin to treat Covid-19.
- The US Poison Control Center found that the number of calls with ivermectin overdose has tripled.
Due to the surge in demand for unproven coronavirus treatment, an American woman won a court order from an Ohio hospital to require her husband to use the antiparasitic drug ivermectin to treat her husband on a Covid-19 ventilator.
This case is one of the cases in which courts across the country support litigants seeking to use the drug, although there is insufficient evidence to prove that it is effective against Covid, and because of abuse (including ingestion of livestock-strength preparations), the calls to the poison center are not available. Increased.
According to an order filed on August 23, Judge Gregory Howard ordered West Chester Hospital, located outside Cincinnati, to treat Julie Smith’s husband Jeffrey Smith with ivermectin.
Smith received a prescription from Fred Wagshul, a doctor who listed on the website an organization called the “Frontline Covid-19 Intensive Care Alliance”, which promotes the use of ivermectin.
She is represented by lawyer Ralph Lorigo, who has won similar cases in New York and Chicago.
Since the beginning of the Covid pandemic, there has been considerable interest in reusing existing drugs.
Ivermectin has attracted a lot of attention, especially in Latin America, and early laboratory studies have shown that it may have beneficial properties against the coronavirus.
However, under normal circumstances, the promise in the laboratory environment has not been translated into real-world success so far because it lacks clear efficacy in experiments.
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The National Institutes of Health stated that there is not enough evidence to “support or oppose the use of ivermectin to treat Covid-19” until the rigorous trial yields clear results.
Ivermectin is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat certain diseases caused by parasites, but the agency warns people not to use it for Covid.
A recent report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) showed that by mid-August, doctors had prescribed more than 88,000 medications per week—far above the pre-pandemic baseline of 3,600.
The Poison Control Center found that the number of calls with ivermectin overdose increased threefold.
One case involved an adult who drank an injectable ivermectin preparation for cattle and was hospitalized for 9 days due to confusion, lethargy, hallucinations, shortness of breath and tremors.
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Another person purchased ivermectin of unknown strength from the Internet and took it five times a day for five consecutive days. When he arrived at the hospital, he was unconscious and was unable to answer questions or follow orders. Symptoms improved after stopping the drug.
Ivermectin’s fight against the new coronavirus epidemic has led people to compare it with hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malarial drug that was particularly favored by conservatives last year, although there is no strong evidence to prove its efficacy in the real world.
High-profile supporters include Fox News hosts Laura Ingraham and Sean Hannity, and Republican Senator Ron Johnson.
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