Okla. Doctor Warns Against Taking Ivermectin For COVID, Speaks On Differences In Human & Animal Forms

Some people in Oklahoma are taking ivermectin, a drug typically used on large animals, for COVID-19.

People can simply pick the drug up at feed stores.

Dr. Lacey Anderson with Primary Health Partners told News 9 the dose and form of ivermectin that's available at those stores can be very dangerous.

"People have asked how to dose animal ivermectin," Anderson said. "I wouldn’t take animal ivermectin first of all."

She said there is a human form of the drug, but it's not used to fight COVID.

"So sometimes we see parasitic infections here in the U.S.," Anderson said. "More commonly when people travel to another country say on mission trips and stuff like that those are the times, we would prescribe ivermectin."

News 9 asked what the differences are between the human version of the drug and what's available at feed stores.

"The human form is purified," Anderson said. "The animal form, first of all, is dosed at a much higher dose because these are dosed for 600-to-1000-pound animals."

Anderson said overdosing on ivermectin can be very dangerous and can even cause neurological problems.

"It can cause vision loss, cause severe nausea, and vomiting and worst-case scenario is chronic pain with peripheral neuropathy," Anderson said.

She said right now there's no evidence that the drug even helps someone fighting COVID-19.

"I would say in general most doctors are not prescribing it because we don’t have good evidence that it works for COVID yet," Anderson said. "Now there are doctors that will prescribe it but they’re prescribing it off label, based on their own beliefs, not based on actual scientific evidence."

Anderson said she strongly urges people not to take the drug for COVID because she doesn't know if it works as a treatment.

Instead, she said right now the treatments that have helped in the battle against COVID are vaccinations and the monoclonal antibody treatment.