Mumbai Move for Ivermectin Prophylaxis While Uttar Pradesh Smashes COVID-19 but Drug’s Use Suppressed in Media

With ivermectin now on the national Indian COVID-19 list of recommended treatments for COVID-19, a few states have gone to the next level and included the low-cost, generic drug approved throughout the world as a parasite fighter as a prophylactic targeting SARS-CoV-2, the virus behind COVID-19. Three Indian states, including Goa, Karnataka and Uttarakhand, have authorized ivermectin as a prophylaxis along with vitamin D during the pandemic. Now Maharashtra, home to about 126 million people and the city of Mumbai, filed an action with the Mumbai high court yesterday directing the central government to file an affidavit based on public interest litigation (PIL) that too calls for ivermectin and vitamin D as a prophylactic regimen in the COVID-19 protocol. Two justices, Amjad Sayed and Girish Kulkarni sought to elicit the central government’s stance on this request. According to the Times of India article, Dr. S M Tayde representing the health services of Mumbai had a response submitted opposing the PIL, declaring no new advisory is necessary given the state of Maharashtra already has issued a state-wide protocol incorporating ivermectin for a course of treatment for COVID-19 patien...