In Austria, customs have confiscated 24,169 smuggled tablets of the drug ivermectin since the beginning of the year.
The remedy against the infestation of parasites such as intestinal worms is viewed by some, against the advice of the manufacturer and medical organizations, as a suitable drug for Covid disease.
In Austria it became known that the head of the right-wing FPÖ party, Herbert Kickl, campaigned for a Covid treatment with ivermectin.
Finance Minister Gernot Blümel (ÖVP) announced on Sunday that there was an "explosive increase" in the deworming tablets ordered to Austria.
This has also been confirmed in an EU-wide priority campaign, Austria is in second place here.
Blümel said that in the past few months there had been “a real campaign” to take the drug “as an alleged Covid cure”.
He was alluding to the former FPÖ interior minister: Kickl rejects all restrictive corona measures as well as vaccinations.
Instead, he calls for treatments with such agents and, for prevention, relies on strengthening the constitution, for example with vitamin preparations or bitter substances.
This did not protect him from a corona infection recently, but he can leave the quarantine after an apparently mild course.
Ivermectin has actually shown an inhibitory effect on the increase in viral load in laboratory studies.
It is also not only prescribed for horses, but also for people with worms or itch mites.
According to the Ministry of Health, however, an effective treatment would require such a high dose that poisoning cannot be ruled out.
Recently, a woman in Styria was treated with symptoms of intoxication, which, according to ORF, was due to self-medication with the worming agent.