Buenos Aires – An Argentinian judge forced a private clinic to administer chlorine dioxide, which is used as a powerful disinfectant, to a coronavirus patient who died Monday in a case that doctors have labeled “a scandal”. The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and other agencies warn that chlorine dioxide, touted online as a “miracle drug,” can be dangerous to human health if consumed.
In the wake of President Trump’s suggestion that disinfectants could be injected to treat COVID-19, a number of Americans were hospitalized for ingesting cleaning products and at least three people were charged with criminal offenses for selling on chlorine based products as a remedy for the disease. .
The patient’s stepson made a legal offer last Thursday, the day after his mother died of COVID-19, to give the compound to her critically ill husband.
A judge granted the request the same day and ordered the Otamendi y Miroli clinic in Buenos Aires to administer the substance, on the prescription of the patient’s doctor.
The clinic unsuccessfully appealed the ruling, giving the man the content while insisting that it would bear no responsibility for any negative outcome.
The patient, a 92-year-old man who was in critical condition from the virus, died on Monday, the family’s lawyer confirmed.
I say Sunday / AP
The FDA has warned that consumption of chlorine dioxide products “may put a person’s health at risk,” have no proven effectiveness against COVID-19, and are known to cause respiratory and liver failure among other adverse effects.
The Pan American Health Organization, the Argentine Society of Infectology, and the country’s National Administration of Drugs, Foods and Medical Devices have also issued warnings against using chlorine products to treat COVID-19.
The judge ruled that giving the treatment did not threaten to cause “serious harm” to the clinic but, conversely, prevented the “deterioration” of the patient’s condition.
Doctors have criticized the decision.
“Judicial error and a scandal”
“It is really worrying that a judge decides that a doctor should administer a substance for which there is no scientific evidence, especially if it is in an intravenous form,” said Omar Sued, president of the Argentine Society of Infectology.
“It is not a judge’s decision to give a patient a drug that he does not know. It is not his role.”
Ignacio Maglio, a lawyer for the Argentine health NGO Fundacion Huesped, said the case amounted to a miscarriage of justice, a “miscarriage of justice and a scandal.”
Chlorine dioxide is used to disinfect medical and laboratory equipment, to treat water in low concentrations, or as a bleaching agent.
The family’s lawyer told television station C5N that his client will sue the Otamendi clinic for holding it responsible for the patient’s death because it “delayed treatment.”
“The man died of an infection in the hospital and the delay in treatment,” the lawyer said.
Argentina announced on Monday that it would introduce a new COVID-19 therapy, developed locally by scientists, with serum extracted from horses that developed antibodies after being injected with coronavirus proteins.
The serum developed by biotech company Inmunova has been tested on patients in 18 hospitals for the clinical trial phase and will now be distributed to hospitals and clinics under a special license from Argentina’s ANMAT drug watchdog.
Inmunova director Fernando Goldbaum said the serum helps patients by suppressing the spread of viruses, giving the body time to build its own defense system.
The developers of the therapy said it reduced mortality by 45 percent.
According to a press statement, the Argentine Biological Institute laboratory produces about 12,000 treatments per month.
Argentina, with a population of 44 million, has recorded more than 1.7 million coronavirus cases and nearly 44,500 deaths.