I'm in a debate with a friend over the safeness of animal-labeled ivermectin vs. human-labeled ivermectin. They're not debating whether or not the ivermectin itself is safe, but they are pointing to a multitude of resources about whether or not "horse ivermectin" is safe for humans. They are swearing up and down that horse paste will harm humans, cause cancer, give people bad side-effects from improper and dangerous components added to it, and more. There's simply no way to get human-labeled ivermectin in our area and animal (horse) paste variety is still available. I know three families that have given it to their kids and aged family and everyone is doing GREAT after a full round of horse paste.
I can't find any evidence that the horse paste variety has anything bad in it. I understand people might have an aversion to it, but I would like to convince this person that it is safe. They have some family that is very much at risk and it seems like they are going to default to doctors and bad treatments if they can't find a "human option".
Any kind of documentation for ingredients or anything that demonstrates the safety of animal varieties would be really helpful.
The best argument I've heard against it is that the carrier formula is meant for animals, and thus not safe for human consumption.
However, a call to Durvet revealed that the carrier formula is corn oil based, so I don't think it's a problem.
The biggest thing is the stigma of taking "drugs meant for animals". Kind of like peer pressure in High School.
Additionally, I took the horse paste and suffered no noticeable effects other than a less loose stool (sorry for TMI)
I do suspect most adult humans host parasites, and I wonder why we deworm our animals but not ourselves.