Fact Check: ICMR Did Not issue guidelines to Use ‘Ivermectin’ For Covid-19 treatment, Viral Post Is Misleading

New Delhi (Vishvas News) A viral post on social media claims that ICMR released new guidelines for drug administration for covid-19 patients on August 6, 2020.

Vishvas News investigation revealed the claim is misleading. ICMR has not released the guidelines as in the claim.

Claim

Social media user ‘@rajinikanthgupt’ sharing the viral post (archive link ) wrote, “New guidelines of ICMR for C-19 released on Aug 6^th.
For prophylaxis Tab;
Ivermectin 12 mg
On Day 1, Day 7 & Day 30;
2 hrs after dinner.
Followed by
every 30 days 1 tab of 12mg till pandemic is over.”

Many other users have shared similar claim on different social media platforms it with the same claim, believing it to be from the ICMR.

Investigation

ICMR has issued guidelines often for treating Covid-19 patients. To check the authenticity of the guidelines in claim, we searched the institute’s website. We did not find any guidelines issued by the ICMR on August 6 as in the viral post.

Vishvas News contacted Dr Rajni Kant, Scientist ‘G’ & Director, Research Management, Policy, Planning and Coordination (RMPPC) at Indian Council of Medical Research, New Delhi for clarification.  “No such guidelines have been issued by the institute,” he said.

Viral post claims ‘Ivermectin’ as a drug to Covid-19 patients. On searching with this keyword, we found a report published by the Indian Express. Accordingly, the Uttar Pradesh government has approved the use of ‘Ivermectin’ in place of ‘Hydroxychloroquine’ for treating corona infected patients in its new protocol. 

In a tweet posted on 7 August by news agency ANI UP, we also found a copy of the order issued by the Uttar Pradesh government (on 6 August 2020), in which all the Chief Medical Officers and Chief Medical Superintendents of the state were given instructions on the use of the drug ‘Ivermectin’ for prevention and treatment of coronavirus infection.

This guideline issued by the Uttar Pradesh government to administer ‘Ivermectin’ drug for patients with no and minor symptoms is viral as from ICMR.

Twitter User Rajinikanth Gupta is one among the many users who shared the viral post. Social scanning of his profile revealed that his account is active since November 2018 and has 35 followers.

According to information provided by the Ministry of Health, the recovery rate has increased to 78.27 per cent among cases of fast growing infections in India. Sixty per cent of the total patients are in the five most affected states, which has recovery rate around 60 per cent.

According to Covid-19 India Tracker, (as of 15 September till 8 am) the total number of patients in India has crossed 49 lakhs. So far 80,776 people have died in India due to coronavirus.