WHO warns against taking ibuprofen for Covid-19 symptoms

Last updated on May 13th, 2021 at 05:47 am

GENEVA – The World Health Organization recommended yesterday that people suffering Covid-19 symptoms should not self-medicate with the anti-inflammatory drug ibuprofen.

WHO spokesperson Christian Lindmeier said that while UN health agency’s experts were looking into this to give further guidance, They recommend using rather paracetamol as Ibuprofen and similar anti-inflammatory drugs could “aggravate” the Covid-19 infections.

Recent study in The Lancet medical journal hypothesised that an enzyme boosted by anti-inflammatory drugs could facilitate and worsen COVID-19 infections.

However, Lindmeier pointed out that if ibuprofen had been “prescribed by the healthcare professionals, then that’s up to them.” The Covid-19 pandemic, which currently infected around 190,000 and killed 7,800 people worldwide causes mild symptoms in most people, but can result in some cases severe illness that can lead to death.