PETALING JAYA: The Consumers Association of Penang (CAP) has voiced its support for the Malaysian Alliance for Effective Covid Control (MAECC)’s call for allowing Ivermectin use under the emergency use authorisation (EUA) together with the current vaccination programme.
The government must respond positively to the call as it is to save lives, CAP president Mohideen Abdul Kader said today.
“If adopted, Malaysia would be among the 32 countries worldwide to use this drug in successful Covid-19 preventative and treatment programmes. Moreover, Ivermectin is a low risk, low cost and an established medicine that is readily available. It had been in use for decades, albeit for different indications,” he said in a statement.
“Former director of the National Poison Center at Universiti Sains Malaysia Tan Sri Dzulkifli Abdul Razak pointed out that proponents of Ivermectin use argues that it represents an important ‘alternative’ treatment for Covid-19.
“He added that ‘poorer’ countries are mostly left out in the global Covid-19 vaccine rollout as the process is dominated by what is termed as vaccine ‘nationalism’ and ‘apartheid’. This causes continued disparities in vaccine access worldwide.”
Mohideen pointed out that the success stories of Ivermectin use to treat Covid-19 cases are impressive despite the fact that the World Health Organisation (WHO) doesn’t recommend its use for Covid-19 treatment.
In April 2020, India had the world’s highest daily infection record of 360,960 cases and a month of mass distribution of Ivermectin in the most affected states and cities, the infection rate plunged to below 7,000 daily cases, he said.
“Given the slow progress in vaccinating people and the delay in the results of the Ivermectin trial which only started in June 2021, we cannot wait any longer to be confronted by another Wave of highly infectious variants. Our healthcare system is already buckling under the pressure of daily number of positive cases,” Mohideen added.
“After more than a year of Movement Control Orders (MCO), the country is suffering economically and people having poor mental health. Within the first five months of 2021 there were 468 suicides. The situation is likely to deteriorate if the government continues to drag its feet in managing the pandemic effectively. Experience of countries using Ivermectin to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic gives hope of restoring normalcy here in Malaysia.”
