New Delhi: The World Health Organisation (WHO) on Tuesday warned against the general use of Ivermectin, an orally-administered anti-parasitic drug, for treatment of COVID-19 patients, days after a recent study found it to prevent severe infection from coronavirus. The statement from the WHO top scientist comes a day after the Goa government gave a green signal for the usage of the drug to all citizens above 18 years to reduce the extent of COVID-19 infection.

“Safety and efficacy are important when using any drug for a new indication. WHO recommends against the use of ‘ivermectin’ for COVID-19 except within clinical trials,” tweeted Dr Soumya Swaminathan, WHO’s chief scientist, sharing a similar warning issued by German healthcare and life sciences giant Merck.

This is WHO’s second warning against the usage of Ivermectin for coronavirus in the past two months.

The German body, in its analysis of Ivermectin, identified that there is “no scientific basis for a potential therapeutic effect against COVID-19 from pre-clinical studies”. It also noted that there was no meaningful evidence for the clinical activity or efficacy of the drug in covid patients.

“We do not believe that the data available support the safety and efficacy of ivermectin beyond the doses and populations indicated in the regulatory agency-approved prescribing information,” it said.

This is in contradiction to the recent find that recommended the antiparasitic drug Ivermectin as a “powerful prophylaxis” which significantly reduces the risk of contracting COVID-19.

In March, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of the US, which has approved Ivermectin usage for patients with intestinal strongyloidiasis and onchocerciasis, asserted that the drug has not been approved for the treatment of COVID-19 patients and it may prove dangerous if used incorrectly.

Why has Goa recommended Ivermectin for adults?

Goa Health Minister Vishwajit Rane said that the decision was taken after expert panels from the UK, Italy, Spain and Japan found the drug to have a “statistically significant reduction in mortality rate, time to recovery, and viral clearance in COVID-19 patients”.

“The Ivermectin 12 mg tablet will be made available in all the district, sub-district, PHCs, CHCs, sub-health centres, rural dispensaries for people to collect and start treatment immediately, irrespective of any symptoms or anything,” he said.

“This does not prevent Covid-19 infection but helps in reducing the severity of the disease…” he added.