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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is warning people not to use the drug ivermectin to treat COVID-19. Ivermectin is a deworming drug that is given to animals, but a growing number of people have been using it to treat mild cases of COVID-19.
"You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Seriously, y'all. Stop it," the FDA wrote on Twitter.
While the drug has been approved in humans to treat parasitic infections, it has not been proven to treat COVID-19. In addition, health officials are concerned that people who are self-medicating are using larger doses of ivermectin meant for animals.
The Mississippi Department of Health said that 70% of recent calls to the state's poison control center "have been related to ingestion of livestock or animal formulations of ivermectin purchased at livestock supply centers."
"Animal drugs are highly concentrated for large animals and can be highly toxic in humans. Some of the symptoms associated with ivermectin toxicity include rash, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, neurologic disorders, and potentially severe hepatitis requiring hospitalization," the agency said.
While there were no reports of people being hospitalized due to taking the drug in Mississippi, the FDA said that several people in Louisiana had to be hospitalized after ingesting ivermectin.
"The reality is, there hasn't been one trial to prove ivermectin is useful," Dr. Nima Majlesi, the director of medical toxicology at Staten Island University Hospital, told ABC News. "A lot of people aren't doing this under the care of a doctor, which is very scary."