‘Significant Increase’ In Disinfectant Poisoning After Trump's Suggestion
Within 24 hours of Donald Trump's suggestion that injecting disinfectant might help people infected with coronavirus, some U.S poison centres and hotlines noted a spike in people requiring medical help.
On Thursday, Trump made the controversial comments at a press conference.
"I see the disinfectant that knocks it out in a minute, one minute. And is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside or almost a cleaning?" he said, asking the health officials present at the press conference.
By Saturday he claimed he was being sarcastic when he floated the possibility -- although hours earlier, the White House press secretary said the president's remarks were taken out of context.
But the suggestion, confusion and partial retraction wasn't enough to stop some Americans from trying it at home.
It's a trend health authorities have been voicing concern about since panicked shoppers bought cleaning products en masse In early March.
According to figures obtained by New York's Daily News, health authorities saw 30 cases of “exposure to Lysol, bleach & other cleaners in 18 hours after Trump’s suggestion”. The NYC Poison Control saw only 13 such cases in a similar period last year.
Fortunately, none of the people who reached out died or required hospitalisation, the spokesman said.
There was also a “significant increase” in calls to the Illinois Poison Control Center, according to its public health director Dr. Ngozi Ezike.
“There has been a significant increase in calls to the Illinois Poison Control Center in association with exposure to cleaning agents (since Thursday),” she said.
Ezike is urging state residents not to ingest cleaning chemicals in a bid to treat COVID-19
In the state of Maryland, emergency authorities received more than 100 calls inquiring about the president’s suggestion, with a social media alert warning people not to inject or ingest disinfectant products.
On Friday, Lysol parent company Reckitt Benckiser issued a statement informing people that "under no circumstance should our disinfectant products be administered into the human body (through injection, ingestion or any other route)."
Last month, the Centre For Disease Control (CDC) reported there was an increase in poisoning cases between January and March.
There were around 45,550 cases of poisoning related to cleaning and disinfectants in this period with the largest spike in early March.
The CDC notes there is no way to report a direct link to the pandemic, yet based on the fact the sharp rise occurred at the same time the virus spread in and America and cleaning supply shortage were reported at supermarkets, it is likely connected to people disinfecting their homes.
Australia's Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy couldn't conceal his laughter on Friday when asked for his clinical advice on such a novel treatment.
"I would caution against the injection of disinfection," the usually straight-faced medical expert said.
"They could be quite toxic to people."
Contact the author alattouf@networkten.com.au