Goa to use anti-parasitic drug shunned by US regulator to treat Covid patients

The drug, Ivermectin, has been disapproved of by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

"The Government of Goa will be starting the Prophylaxis treatment for those above 18 years of age. I have given instructions for immediate implementation of the treatment," Goa Public Health Minister Vishwajit P Rane said in a Facebook post on Monday.

"In this, patients will be treated with Ivermectin 12mg for a period of 5 days. Expert panels from the UK, Italy, Spain and Japan, found a large, statistically significant reduction in mortality, time to recovery and viral clearance in Covid-19 patients treated with Ivermectin."

However, this does not prevent Covid-19 infection but helps in reducing the severity of the disease and at the same time one should not have a false sense of security and complacency but strictly take all the precautionary measures and follow laid SOP’s, Rane clarified.

The tablet will be made available at all the District, Sub-district, PHCs, CHCs, Sub Health Centers, RMDs as well as GMC so that the people can come and collect these medications and start the treatment immediately, irrespective of any symptoms or anything, he added in the post.

Ivermectin is approved at very specific doses for some parasitic worms but is not an anti-viral, according to the US FDA, which had also warned of some serious harm that the drug could cause.