Health Ministry denies allowing use of Ivermectin to treat Covid-19

PETALING JAYA: The Health Ministry has denied a viral message claiming that they are allowing off-label usage of the anti-parasitic drug Ivermectin to treat Covid-19.

"The off-label use of Ivermectin to treat Covid-19 is only for clinical trials – not on the request of patients in hospital," it said in a Facebook post on Saturday (July 10).

The post claimed that the Ministry was allowing the use of Ivermectin for those who ask for it.

Ivermectin has been in use for decades to treat head lice and river blindness in humans and heartworm in animals.

In regards to Covid-19 treatment, laboratory experiments by researchers at the Monash University in Australia found that Ivermectin in vitro had an inhibitory action on SARS-CoV-2, reducing the load of viral RNA by 5,000 times in 48 hours.

On June 5, the Ministry and the Institute for Clinical Research started clinical trials to study the use and efficacy of Ivermectin for high-risk Covid-19 patients at 12 hospitals.

Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said evidence was inconclusive to recommend routine use of Ivermectin for Covid-19 patients.

Dr Noor Hisham said the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had not approved Ivermectin for treatment of Covid-19 in humans and that the World Health Organisation only recommended it in a clinical trial setting.