Ivermectin prescriptions in the UK
Doctors or disease?
While undertaking some research on the prescribing of certain drugs by UK GP surgeries for a new post, I discovered an interesting titbit in the data relating to the prescription of Ivermectin in the UK. The UK NHS doesn’t seem to prescribe Ivermectin for intestinal worms and most prescriptons appear to be as a topical treatment for rosacea, a redness of the skin usually found near the face. As an aside, it is thought that Ivermectin works to reduce rosacea through an anti-inflammatory action — so much for it simply being an anti-parasitic used only in horses.
However, the interesting data wasn’t in the prescriptions of Ivermectin for rosacea, but rather as a treatment for infections with types of nematode worm. These infections are very rare in the UK, thus prescriptions for Ivermectin for this purpose typically range from 25 to 50 prescriptions per month… Until 2022:
Prior to 2020 prescriptions were running at an average of 30 per month. During 2021 this had risen to around 50 per month, and for the data given for 2022 (up to October) the average number of prescriptions written per month had risen to almost 120 — that’s a fourfold rise compared with the pre-2020 rate.
Of course, I don’t know why this rise has occurred — here are a few guesses as to the reason:
Perhaps we’re seeing a sudden and dramatic rise in cases of River Blindness in the UK.
Perhaps some GPs decided to deworm their horses, but couldn’t be bothered to see a vet about it and instead wrote themselves a prescription for Ivermectin pretending that it was for a nematode infection (as they’re not allowed to prescribe medicines for horses).
Perhaps a few GPs decided to take note of multiple sources of evidence suggesting that Ivermectin was effective as a prophylactic and treatment for Covid, pretending that it was for a nematode infection (as they weren’t allowed to prescribe it for Covid).
If it was the latter, it was nice that these GPs could prescribe themselves Ivermectin, while the rest of us had to resort to borrowing some from a neighbour.
Clearly GPs, after they voted for excessive pay rises, decided to buy more horses. And now that they only work three days, they take their horses on longer rides down to the river, where, unfortunately, many get river blindness.
Only answer in my view.
PS - How do you get Ivermectin in the UK if you don't know an open minded GP with a horse?
Fascinating. I get the impression, more Gps are waking up. How could they not when they are the ones witnessing the serious adverse events and deaths of their patients. Our GP got the hell out of our surgery when he realised experimental biologicals were on the way. He wanted nothing to do with them.