Mississippi Coast health officials and federal agencies are warning residents about a horse de-worming medication being used as an at-home treatment for COVID-19.
At a Gulf Coast Business Council meeting on Thursday, Singing River Hospital CEO Lee Bond said one patient had been recently hospitalized after injecting ivermectin.
The medicine is an anti-parasitic medicine commonly used in horses and cows, and has recently been flying off shelves at farm supply stores across the United States.
The
U.S. Food and Drug Administration says there’s a “growing interest” in humans using the drug to treat COVID-19. It has not been approved the FDA.
“Ivermectin is often used in the U.S. to treat or prevent parasites in animals. The FDA has received multiple reports of patients who have required medical support and been hospitalized after self-medicating with ivermectin intended for horses,” the FDA says on its website.