Ivermectin against covid is compromising the liver of patients, according to doctors. The new coronavirus still raises many questions and few answers for science. However, several experts have already commented on an opinion: Ivermectin does not fight and much less prevents covid-19.
Now, doctors have reported cases in which the substance use has led patients to liver failure, meaning the patient needs a liver transplant to survive.
Ivermectin, as well as Chloroquine and Hydroxychloroquine, were adopted, by the federal government itself, as treatments and medications to prevent the coronavirus – part of the so-called “covid kit”, with drugs that supposedly (and without scientific evidence) would be effective in “early treatment disease ”.
According to doctor Pedro Carvalho Diniz, a member of the National Network of Doctors and Popular Physicians, who works as an on-duty doctor at the Covid ICU and general ICU at the University Hospital the Federal University of the São Francisco Valley, in Pernambuco.
The topic started to be discussed in April 2020.
The discussion began based on a study by an Australian research institute, which said that Ivermectin would stop the proliferation and growth of viruses. Based on this study, the use of this medication against covid-19 has spread, which “resulted in a large number of people taking high doses and continuing for a long time, to prevent covid”, points out Diniz.
“The most common symptom is intoxication, but there is also a risk of liver failure, and often the only possible treatment is transplantation, and if the transplantation is not carried out immediately in a matter of hours, very few days, the person dies from bankruptcy. Liver, ”he says.
”The point is that [the research] is an in vitro study. The in vitro study is a preliminary part of studies in medicine or other areas. The limitation is that he mostly studies a limited cell culture, which is not subject to all the nuances and characteristics of the relationships and interactions that exist in the human body ”, explains Diniz.
Medicated Hepatitis
Last week, the Sociedade Paulista de Pneumologia e Tisiologia (SPPT), Fred Fernandes, published on his Twitter that he was asked to evaluate a patient with medicated hepatitis.
“Ivermectin medicated hepatitis. 18 mg daily for a week. By light covid in young. Very sad to see a young person on the verge of needing a transplant for using a medication that does not work in a situation that does not need any medication ”, he wrote.
Remedy to Treat
About the Australian research, Diniz that “the amount of Ivermectin that managed to stop the proliferation of the virus is a dose 35 times greater than the usual dose used for the treatment of worms”, says remembering that the drug is an old antiparasitic, which treats worms with a lot of security and experience in the market.
“To treat parasitic diseases, something around 12mg is used in a single dose or in some cases the amount is repeated between 7 and 15 days. The in vitro study dose is 35 times higher, that is, around 360 to 400 mg, a very high dose and undoubtedly toxic to the human body causing, among other problems, hepatitis.
It was undoubtedly what Fred put in his Tweet, and indeed that person took less than 360 mg, probably his condition was due to repeated use ”, he said.
Doctors Report Cases
Another doctor from the state of Ceará reported a case in which a patient took three Ivermectin tablets a day for two weeks to prevent covid-19 and was in the transplant queue waiting for a liver.
Denialism Putting Lives at Risk
Since the outset of the pandemic, President Jair Bolsonaro has depreciated the disease, which has led many of his followers to ignore the measures and recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO), such as the use of masks.
In the assessment of Diniz, of the National Network of Popular Doctors, the speech puts lives at risk.
Asked if he attended patients with intoxication or even liver failure due to Ivermectin, he explains that he believes in underreporting since patients do not always report medication use.
However, it leaves an alert for anyone who makes or thinks about using the medication.
“There are no studies in humans or clinical studies with the usual doses that we take to treat parasitic infections for patients with covid-19. This is a scientific error propagated on purpose by the government to defend early treatment along with hydroxychloroquine ”, says the doctor.