Health Ministry drops Ivermectin, Doxycycline as COVID-19 treatment drugs
New Delhi : The Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) under the Union Health Ministry has issued new guidelines and prohibited the use of strong medicines for mild or asymptomatic cases of coronavirus. According to the new revised guideline, the health ministry has asked doctors to drop drugs like hydroxychloroquine, ivermectin, doxycycline, zinc, multivitamins etc from prescription.
The government has retained only antipyretic drugs for fever and antitussive for cold symptoms. The health ministry has also asked doctors to refrain from prescribing unnecessary tests related to COVID-19 infection such as CT scan.
“No other Covid-19 specific medication is required. The patient may have to be investigated further if symptoms persist or deteriorate,” the ministry stated.
This comes weeks after WHO had advised to remove Ivermectin from the treatment of coronavirus.
The May 27 order had also restricted Remdesivir to select moderate/severe hospitalised patients who are on supplemental oxygen within 10 days of the infection. Another drug in high demand, Tocilizumab is an immunosuppressant medicine that the DGHS said should be used only in severe and critically ill patients.
With second wave of coronavirus, India also found infections like black fungus, which many experts claimed a side-effect of steroids.
India had logged 1,00,636 new coronavirus cases today, the lowest caseload recorded in two months. A total of 2427 deaths were recorded in the last 24 hours, as per the Health Ministry today morning. The active cases stand at 14,01,609.
