Dutch doctors prescribing controversial scabies medicine to Long Covid patients
Several doctors in the Netherlands prescribe the controversial anti-scabies medicine Ivermectin to Long Covid patients, NPO Radio 1 journalists found in an investigation for their podcast Long Covid en de kwakzalverindustrie. Some don’t send their patients to a pharmacy to get the drug but refer them to someone who makes the pills at home.
Ivermectin is a drug used for mange or scabies in humans and parasites in livestock. Early in the coronavirus pandemic, the idea that the drug could treat Covid-19 was widespread. It has since been scientifically proven that this is not the case.
The NPO Radio 1 journalists went undercover as Long Covid patients and found a Dutch doctor who prescribed Ivermectin to them. “You often start with Ivermectin to see: does it do something,” the GP told them. “The reason is that we see that virus residues remain in a number of people. In that case, the Ivermectin can still have some effect.”
The GP in question referred them to a man who makes his own Ivermectin capsules at home. According to the journalists, this man has no medical background. He told them that he’s made about 12,000 pills so far and that four GPs refer patients to him.
One Long Covid patient told the journalists that a Belgian GP prescribed Ivermectin to them. Another’s GP referred them to an organic farm that sells the drug. Another got it from a regular pharmacy in Limburg. Several said they ordered it on AliExpress.
It has been convincingly proven that Ivermectin does nothing against acute Covid-19, Annemieke Horikx of the Medicines Information Center and pharmacists organization KNMP told the podcast makers. “Neat studies have been done, that is to say: double-blind with a control group, which have shown that it really does not work.” According to Horikx, there are no known studies into Ivermectin’s effect on Long Covid. But she called it far-fetched that the drug would work for long-term symptoms after Covid-19.
There are also no studies into the side effects of long-term Ivermectin use, Horikx said. For scabies, Ivermectin is prescribed once-off. “It is not entirely inconceivable that people can experience nausea, abdominal complaints, or vomiting,” she said. “You also see that in people who used it for scabies. In very rare cases, you also see that people get complaints with their nerves.”
A spokesperson for the Health and Youth Care Inspectorate warned that these doctors risk fines and censure. “If the Ivermectin is prescribed incorrectly and the patient is at risk of harm as a result, it can indeed be punishable.” Earlier, the Inspectorate fined 16 Dutch doctors for prescribing Ivermectin to patients with acute Covid-19.
