Horses infected by parasites can ingest Ivermectin. Hollis Johnson/INSIDER
Oklahoma's ER doctor claims that rural hospitals are being clogged by people who overdose on ivermectin.
Dr. Jason McElyea stated that the bed shortage has made it so difficult for gunshot victims to get their beds.
McElyea stated that he had seen people suffering vision problems after taking too much horse deworming medication.
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Rural Oklahoma doctor says that the overdose of horse deworming medication, ivermectin by too many people has led to emergency rooms being overcrowded.
According to Dr. Jason McElyea (an ER physician who is affiliated with several hospitals in Sallisaw and Oklahoma), the situation is so bad that even gunshot victims have to wait to be treated.
McElyea spoke with local news station KFOR-TV about the dangers of taking too much ivermectin (a medicine that is meant to be used on livestock). According to McElyea, rural Oklahoma hospitals were overwhelmed by people who started taking ivermectin doses for horses. He also claimed that there was no evidence that the horse dewormer works well in COVID cases.
McElyea stated that the ERs were so overloaded that gunshot victims had difficulty getting to facilities where they could receive definitive care. "All their ambulances are waiting at the hospital for a bed so they can take in the patient, and they don’t have any," McElyea said. There is no ambulance available to answer the call if there aren't any ambulances.
McElyea said that most of his patients didn't seem to have any problems with horse dewormer consumption because they were already familiar with it.
"We all were exposed to ivermectin as children growing up in small towns and rural areas. It's something that most people are familiar with. He said that cattle are less scared of inoculating themselves with accidental sticks.
McElyea stated, however that people can suffer real side effects from taking a dose meant for a full-sized mare, such as vision loss, nausea and vomiting.
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He said that some people who take inappropriate doses of COVID have put themselves in worse situations than if they had caught it.
According to The New York Times' COVID tracker, Oklahoma had reported 557,770 COVID deaths and 8001 COVID cases at press time. On September 2, the state reported an average daily number of 2,671 cases, a 21% increase in the last 14 days.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a warning last week that self-medicating using ivermectin could lead to serious illness. An overdose can result in seizures, coma and even death.
According to the US Food and Drug Administration, mild side effects can also be very unpleasant and include nausea and vomiting, low blood pressure and dizziness, as well as other allergic reactions.
However, the CDC numbers show that people continue to consume ivermectin despite warnings from health authorities. Between the beginning of July and the week of August 13th, pharmacies filled over 88,000 prescriptions for ivermectin.
FDA also advised people not to self-medicate using the drug as it is intended for livestock. The FDA acknowledged that the drug is still in its initial stages of research, but noted that the animal formula differs from the one humans should consume.
The National Institutes of Health in the USA is currently conducting a study to determine if ivermectin could help mild and moderate COVID-19 patients cope better. Ivermectin is being studied by the University of Oxford in its PRINCIPLE trial.
Insider has the original article.
