A doctor in Washington County, Arkansas, who has been using the antiparasitic drug ivermectin to treat inmates who have COVID-19 is now being investigated by the state medical board. The drug, which the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has specifically warned about, is frequently used as a dewormer in animals and is not an approved or recommended treatment for COVID-19.
Amy Embry, director of the Arkansas State Medical Board, told CBS News that “the Board’s policy is not to comment on open investigations” and that information will be provided to the full Board for review in the next meeting scheduled after the investigation has ended.
Eva Madison, an elected county official, had raised the issue during a meeting of the finance and budget committee Tuesday night. Prison officials presented their budget for 2022, which included the prison doctor who is now being investigated, Dr. Rob Karas, who called for a 10% increase in the medical services contract.
Madison informed committee members and prison officials that a county employee, who has chosen to remain anonymous to the public, told him he had been sent to the prison clinic to be tested. COVID-19. When the person tested negative, he was given a $ 76 ivermectin prescription. He was worried about the prescription and asked his primary care doctor. The doctor told her to “throw this in the trash,” Madison said.
Eva Madison
Although this individual “was lucky to have a doctor to whom he could go and ask for a second opinion,” Madison told the meeting, “our inmates don’t have that option.”
The FDA has warned against the use of ivermectin to treat or prevent COVID-19 in humans, but misinformation and unfounded claims promoting the drug have spread widely on social media. The agency said it has received “multiple reports” from people who require medical care or hospitalization for drug use.
“Vermectin tablets are approved at very specific doses for some parasitic worms and there are topical formulations (on the skin) for head lice and skin conditions like rosacea,” says the FDA. “Ivermectin is not an antiviral (a drug for treating viruses).”
High doses of ivermectin are “dangerous and can cause serious harm,” the agency added.
There have even been reports of several states of people ingesting highly concentrated forms of ivermectin that are used to prevent heartworms and other parasites in animals, including horses and cows. These formulations can be “highly toxic” to humans, according to the FDA.
Ivermectin has been used for COVID-19 in Latin America, where vaccines and proven treatments are less available, but scientists say claims of its supposed benefits were based on questionable and possibly manipulated data. Other studies have found no benefit.
Merck, the company that makes ivermectin, also said in February that “there is no scientific basis for a possible therapeutic effect against COVID-19” and that most studies on the potential effect of the drug on COVID have “a lack of security data.” ”
Karas Health Care, the practice of Dr. Karas, has been promoting ivermectin for years. On July 16, the practice posted on Facebook: “If someone you know is positive, send it or [sic] and we will start using them with doxy, singular, ivermectin, vitamin d, vitamin c and zinc “.
Facebook marked the post with the message, “Some unapproved COVID-19 treatments can cause serious damage.”
Madison told CBS News Wednesday that after learning of the recipe, she contacted county sheriff Tim Helder.
“The sheriff defended her and said Karas has been regularly prescribing ivermectin in prison during the pandemic,” Madison said.
CBS News has contacted the Washington County Sheriff’s Office for comment.
Madison said that when she spoke to Karas, she confirmed that she had been prescribing the drug to detainees in prison and members of her own family. He said he cited the National Institutes of Health, which said in February that lab research suggests ivermectin may inhibit viruses in test tubes. However, the NIH also said no clinical trials have reported any benefit to human patients with these viruses. The NIH says there is not “sufficient evidence” to make a recommendation about ivermectin and that it is not approved to treat any viral infection.
“It’s very troubling to me that this is the level of care we provide to people in prison,” Madison said at Tuesday’s meeting.
Karas, who has cared for people in prison for six years, confirmed the drug’s prescription to CBS News on Friday, saying vaccines are a “huge asset in the fight against COVID,” but that their availability does not change. the day to day reality of caring for sick patients “.
Karas said in an email that he obtained ivermectin from an authorized pharmacist “in doses and compounds formulated for humans” to give to patients with COVID.
“I don’t have the luxury of doing my own clinical trial or study and I don’t try to do it. I’m on the front line trying to prevent death and serious illness,” he told CBS News. “I am proud of our history in my clinics and in prison in particular.”
He also urged public vaccination and said “self-administration without a prescription or improper ivermectin is foolish and dangerous.”
In an interview with CBS-affiliated KFSM earlier this week, he said he had had COVID twice and was taking ivermectin himself.
“I gave it to my mother. Before she was vaccinated, she had been there preventively. My stepmother, my mothers-in-law, my sister, my sister’s children. We have treated thousands of patients. No. we did. ”He experienced any negative side effects,” Karas told the station.
In an extended clip from Karas’ YouTube interview, he said he began using ivermectin in “high-risk” patients, including those over 40, obese or hypertensive.
Of the 531 cases of COVID in prison since the pandemic began, he said, at least 166 of them involved the highly contagious Delta variant. Karas said he was “proud” that there were no COVID-related deaths and that there was only one hospitalization for COVID in prison.
When pressured for ivermectin not to be approved by the FDA for COVID, he said, “Nothing is approved by the FDA for the treatment of COVID.” The FDA approved a drug, the antiviral remdesivir, last October, and also granted an emergency use authorization for various therapeutic drugs.
Karas said detainees in prison “are not required” to take ivermectin and that many reject various drugs, including this one.
The Arkansas Department of Corrections, he said, called him and told him not to use ivermectin in his inmates. If the Washington County sheriff asks him not to use it in county inmates, Karas said he will stop, but said he “told me he won’t.”
Prison officials at Tuesday’s meeting said the only oversight of the doctor’s practices was the state medical board, which issued his license.
“It’s state-licensed, the board approved it,” one official said.
If inmates have questions about their medical care, he said, “surely they can write a letter or go to the state health board about any concerns they have about any doctor.”
Even with all the warnings from public health officials, there is a growing concern across the country for people trying to self-medicate with ivermectin. Mississippi recently reported an increase in calls to the poison control center, with at least 70% related to ivermectin.
In Oklahoma, a local investigation by KFOR found that at least 12 tractor supply stores had been sold without animal-grade ivermectin. A store told KFOR that they have even posted a sign “Please don’t eat.”
CBS subsidiary KWTV reports that the Oklahoma Toxicity and Drug Information Center has received at least 11 calls since May about people experiencing adverse reactions after using animal-grade ivermectin.
“Most of these people have bought and used an animal formulation, a veterinary formulation of the drug,” Scott Schaeffer, pharmacist and general manager of the center, told KWTV. “There is always the temptation to look for the next best treatment. Ivermectin, in my opinion, is not like that.”