Coronavirus: Texas health officials issue warning after spike in people ingesting bleach to treat disease

Texas poison centre has received 46 calls in August relating to bleach incidents

Health officials in Texas have repeated calls for residents not to use bleach to treat or prevent Covid-19 after a spike in people ingesting harmful chemicals.

Cristina Holloway, public health education manager at North Texas Poison Center (TCPN), said the service had received 46 calls in August relating to bleach incidents.

Some of those calls involved people having drunk bleach and citing coronavirus as the reason why they had done so, Ms Holloway said.

“We certainly are not used to seeing bleach ingestion, at least that frequently in such a short amount of time, and we do know in general this year compared to last we’re seeing a whole lot more of bleach exposures,” Cristina Holloway, the public health education manager at North Texas Poison Center, told NBC on Monday.

Ms Holloway blamed the media and misinformation on the internet for the spike in bleach incidents. Most of the cases were not severe, although 12 required medical attention, Ms Holloway added.

“We do know that there’s a lot of misinformation through the media, through the internet, so that can also be a contributing factor where people are misinformed and hear it from a neighbor or a friend and think it sounds like a good idea when it could potentially be dangerous,” she said.

She also claimed that increased cleaning routines in homes during the pandemic was a factor in the rising number of bleach-related incidents.

“We do know that more people are using these products more than ever before and typically when we have more of those products, using products, we see more exposure, more accidents will happen,” Ms Holloway said.

TCPN issued a statement this week in which it urged Texans to read the instructions on bleach and cleaning products before use.

TCPN has seen a surge in bleach-related incidents (TCPN)

The statement said there has been a 71 per cent increase in bleach related incidents and a 63 per cent increase in household cleaning product incidents.

The statement did not clarify in which period it had recorded the increasing number of bleach-related incidents. It did not directly advise Texans not to drink bleach, despite Ms Holloway confirming there had been a rise in ingestion of the chemical.

In April this year, president Trump was lambasted by the medical community after suggesting research into whether coronavirus might be treated by injecting disinfectant into the body.

He also appeared to propose irradiating patients’ bodies with UV light, an idea dismissed by a doctor at the briefing.

Mr Trump has also repeatedly endorsed hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malaria drug that has not been proven to be an effective drug in treating coronavirus patients.