US President Donald Trump have come under fire from medical community after suggesting research should go into whether coronavirus might be treated by injecting disinfectant into the body.
President Trump stated this during Thursday‘s White House coronavirus task force briefing.
He also proposed irradiating patients’ bodies with UV light, an idea quickly dismissed by a doctor at the briefing.
These were outlined by William Bryan, acting head of the US Department of Homeland Security’s Science and Technology Directorate in US recent research.
Bryan while presenting the results of US government research outlined other findings which includes sunlight and disinfectant were known to kill the infection, claiming the virus is weakened quickly when exposed to sunlight and heat.
The US study also suggests that bleach could kill the virus in saliva or respiratory fluids within five minutes and isopropyl alcohol could kill it even more quickly.
While noting the research should be treated with caution, Trump suggested further research in that area.
He explained that;
So, supposing we hit the body with a tremendous – whether it’s ultraviolet or just very powerful light and I think you said that hasn’t been checked but you’re going to test it. And then I said, supposing you brought the light inside of the body, which you can do either through the skin or in some other way. And I think you said you’re going to test that too. Sounds interesting.
Trump went on to say;
And then I see the disinfectant where it 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? So it’d be interesting to check that. I’m not a doctor. But I’m, like, a person that has a good you-know-what.
Doctors have however warned that the president’s idea could have fatal results.
Pulmonologist Dr Vin Gupta told NBC News;
This notion of injecting or ingesting any type of cleansing product into the body is irresponsible and it’s dangerous. It’s a common method that people utilise when they want to kill themselves.
Kashif Mahmood, a doctor in Charleston, West Virginia, tweeted that;
As a physician, I can’t recommend injecting disinfectant into the lungs or using UV radiation inside the body to treat Covid-19.
Another doctor, John Balmes, a pulmonologist at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital said;
Don’t take medical advice from Trump. Not even a low dilution of bleach or isopropyl alcohol is safe. It’s a totally ridiculous concept.
He warned that even breathing fumes from bleach could cause severe health problems and inhaling chlorine bleach would be absolutely the worst thing for the lungs.
Balmes noted that the airway and lungs are not made to be exposed to even an aerosol of disinfectant.
It would be recalled that Donald Trump had previously hyped a malaria medication, hydroxycloroquine, as a possible treatment for coronavirus, though he has stopped touting that drug recently.
Read Also: Just In: US Approves Chloroquine To Treat Coronavirus
However, recent study of coronavirus patients in a US government-run hospital for military veterans found that there are more deaths among those treated with hydroxychloroquine than those treated with standard care.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has earlier this week warned Americans to be careful with cleaning products as sales of household disinfectants soar amid the pandemic.
The agency’s weekly morbidity and mortality report found that;
Calls to poison centres increased sharply at the beginning of March 2020 for exposures to both cleaners and disinfectants.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has warned against ingesting disinfectants, citing the sale of bogus miracle cures that contain bleach and purport to treat everything from autism to Aids and hepatitis.
The agency’s website stated;
The FDA has received reports of consumers who have suffered from severe vomiting, severe diarrhoea, life-threatening low blood pressure caused by dehydration, and acute liver failure after drinking these products.
