[UPDATE] FDA denounces Nigerian study on ivermectin effects

NOTE: News Channel 8 has corrected its report after readers raised concerns over the accuracy of the scientific methods used in the ivermectin study performed in Nigeria in 2011. The original publishing station, KTSM, issued the following correction:

Concerns over the scientific research methods, the veracity of the original, peer-reviewed report and public statements by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) saying that infertility is not a known side effect of Ivermectin all led to our editorial decision to remove the story.

EL PASO — Men’s reproductive health may be impacted as a result of Ivermectin therapy on human males, according to a News Channel 8 report. 

This was found by researchers at three universities in Nigeria examining the effects of ivermectin, which is used to treat river blindness and other medical conditions in humans, on men’s sperm counts. According to their study, ivermectin causes sterilisation in 85% of men.

Ivermectin is an anti-parasitic veterinary drug. Despite health experts’ recommendations against it, some people have been using it to fight Covid-19. 

The study screened 385 patients with river blindness to investigate the effects of ivermectin on sperm function.

The researchers discovered that 85% of all male patients treated with ivermectin in the recent past who went for routine tests were found to have developed various forms and degrees of sperm dysfunction.

They include the following:

• Low sperm count
• Poor sperm morphology
• Two heads
• Tiny heads
• Double tails
• Absence of tails
• Albino sperm cells
• Azoospermia, or the absence of motile sperm
• Poor sperm motility

“There was a significant drop in the sperm counts of the patients after their treatment with Ivermectin,” the study’s authors concluded.

The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not authorised or approved Ivermectin for treating or preventing Covid-19 in humans or animals.

Dr Ogechika Alozie, infectious disease expert in El Paso, Texas, said to use tried-and-true methods of Covid-19 treatment.

“The reality is this: the things that we know work so far, dexamethasone, actemra, remdesivir in the hospital. Things that work before you go to the hospital like antibody infusions and the vaccines have loads more data than Ivermectin,” he said.

Clinical trials evaluating whether ivermectin tablets can be used to treat Covid-19 are ongoing. But there is no data available to suggest efficacy in fighting the virus.

Therefore, vaccines are the best way to combat Covid-19.

“I get that people are scared, I get that people are worried,” said Alozie. 

“But it puzzles me that people would use something with such little data compared to something that has such great data and we know works.” – The Vibes, September 9, 2021

*Corrections have been made following the FDA statement