Quick Take
Several social media posts claim suramin medicine can cure autism completely. We fact-checked and found the claim to be False.
The Claim
A Twitter and Facebook post claims that suramin medicine is a cheap medication that costs less than thirty American Dollars and has been around for almost a hundred years. The post further claims that one shot of suramin medicine when given to a ‘non-verbal’ kid suffering from autism began speaking within nine hours.
Fact Check
What is Suramin medicine?
Suramin is a medicine used to treat diseases such as African sleeping sicknesses and river blindness. We found no evidence that shows Suramin is approved by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) for public use.
Can suramin medicine cure autism completely?
No. It seems suramin medicine is an unapproved therapy boasted as a cure for autism. We could not find any scientific evidence that can confirm eating suramin cures autism completely. However, scant available research only speculates that suramin might treat autism. The sample size of this evidence is too small and not enough to reach a conclusion.
We asked Dr Abhishek Juneja who is a renowned neurologist practicing in Delhi to share his views on the claim. To this, he said, “Suramin is being investigated for the treatment of neurodevelopmental disorders like Autism. Based on the research so far, it has not been shown to be effective in treating autism.”
The available evidence only informs that there is no proven cure for autism. The symptoms are often controlled using selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), tricyclics, psychoactive or anti-psychotic medications, stimulants, anti-anxiety medications, and anticonvulsants.
We researched and found that suramin is an experimental drug that is only being studied to deal with certain symptoms of autism. The efficacy of suramin against autism has not been demonstrated yet in large-scale clinical trials.
We also found that the claimed posts do not cite the source of the case in which suramin medicine was given to a non-verbal kid who recovered from autism within nine hours.