How many poison center calls and hospitalizations were linked specifically to veterinary ivermectin during the pandemic?

1. Rising calls to poison centers — measurable surges but no single national count

Public-health alerts and poison-control data show a marked increase in human-exposure reports involving ivermectin during 2021 compared with pre-pandemic baselines, with the CDC confirming a three-fold rise in poison-center calls in January 2021 and some local centers reporting up to five times the usual volume by July 2021, but the CDC and AAPCC did not publish a consolidated national count limited to veterinary-product exposures in the sources provided ^{[1] [2] [7]}.

2. Case series that document veterinary-product use and hospitalizations

Detailed investigations illuminate the clinical impact: an Oregon Poison Center report of 21 callers in August 2021 found 17 had purchased veterinary formulations and six of those 21 callers required hospitalization for ivermectin toxicity — all six had reported preventive use and some had prescriptions, reflecting that veterinary-source exposures contributed materially to severe outcomes in that cluster ^{[4] [5]}. A larger retrospective analysis linked to the Oregon center identified 37 cases of ivermectin toxicity over a 24-week period, with 21 hospitalizations and 13 emergency-department treatments, noting that those taking veterinary formulations tended to ingest higher doses and suffer more severe neurologic effects ^[6].

3. Federal and state reports point to multiple hospitalizations but differ on local counts

Federal agencies and state alerts corroborate that veterinary products accounted for many exposures and some hospitalizations: the CDC described at least two hospitalizations involving an injectable cattle product in its advisory ^[8], and the FDA reported “multiple cases” of people requiring medical attention, including hospitalization, after self-medicating with animal ivermectin ^[3]. At the state level, Mississippi health officials warned that roughly 70% of recent calls implicated livestock formulations, though local reporting about hospitalizations was inconsistent — the state alert initially noted no hospitalizations tied to those calls while other local reporting referenced at least one hospitalization known to officials — illustrating variability in how centers counted and reported severe outcomes ^{[9] [10]}.

4. Why a precise national number is elusive — data fragmentation and reporting limits

There is no definitive nationwide figure in the cited reporting because poison-center statistics are fragmented across jurisdictions, reporting thresholds differ (calls versus confirmed exposures versus clinical admissions), some reports mix human-tablet prescriptions with veterinary-product ingestions, and peer-reviewed case series cover limited time windows or regions rather than the entire pandemic period; consequently the best-supported statements in the sources are that multiple poison-center call surges occurred and that documented clusters and series recorded dozens of toxicity cases with many hospitalizations linked to veterinary formulations, but a consolidated national count specifically tied to veterinary ivermectin is not provided in these sources ^{[1] [2] [6] [4]}.

5. Bottom line — documented hospitalizations exist, but no single nationwide tally in provided sources

The evidence shows concrete instances and clusters in which veterinary ivermectin exposure led to hospital care — for example, six hospitalizations among 21 Oregon callers and 21 hospitalizations in a 37-case series treated through the same poison-center network, plus CDC acknowledgment of at least two hospitalizations after injection of cattle ivermectin and FDA statements of “multiple” hospitalized cases — yet the sources stop short of delivering a single definitive nationwide total of poison-center calls or hospitalizations exclusively attributable to veterinary ivermectin throughout the pandemic ^{[4] [6] [8] [3]}.