Buenos Aires – An Argentine judge forced a private clinic to administer chlorine dioxide, used as a powerful disinfectant, to a coronavirus patient who died on Monday in a case, doctors labeled “a scandal”. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and other agencies warn that chlorine dioxide, recognized as a “miracle cure” online, can be dangerous to human health if consumed.
After President Trump suggested that disinfectants could be injected to treat COVID-19, a number of Americans were hospitalized for ingesting cleaning agents and at least three people were charged with offenses for selling chlorine-based products. as remedies for the disease. .
The patient’s stepson brought a legal offer on Thursday, the day after his mother died of COVID-19, so that the complex could be given to her critically ill husband.
A judge accepted the request on the same day and ordered the Otamendi y Miroli clinic in Buenos Aires to administer the substance, prescribed by the patient’s doctor.
The clinic appealed unsuccessfully against the decision and gave the man the substance, but stressed that it will not be responsible for any negative results.
The patient, a 92-year-old man who was in a critical condition of the virus, died on Monday, the family’s lawyer confirmed.
I say Sunday / AP
The FDA has warned that consuming chlorine dioxide products can “endanger a person’s health”, have no proven effectiveness against COVID-19 and is known to cause respiratory and liver failure, among other negative effects.
The Pan American Health Organization, the Argentine Society of Infectious Diseases, and the National Administration of Medicines, Foods, and Medical Devices in the country have also issued warnings against the use of chlorinated products to treat COVID-19.
The judge ruled that the treatment did not threaten the “serious injury” of the clinic, but, on the contrary, could “avoid aggravation” of the patient’s condition.
The doctors disputed the decision.
“Judicial aberration and scandal”
“For a judge to decide that a doctor must administer a substance for which there is no scientific evidence is really worrying, especially when it is in intravenous form,” said Omar Sued, president of the Argentine Society of Infectious Diseases.
“It’s not a judge’s decision to administer a drug he doesn’t know to a patient. It’s not his role.”
Ignacio Maglio, a lawyer for the Argentine health NGO Fundacion Huesped, said the case amounted to a judicial overdose, a “judicial aberration and a scandal.”
Chlorine dioxide is used to disinfect medical and laboratory equipment, to treat water at low concentrations or as a bleach.
The family’s lawyer told C5N that his client would sue the Otamendi clinic because he considered her responsible for the patient’s death because he “delayed treatment.”
“The man died due to an infection in the hospital and due to the delay of the treatment”, said the lawyer.
Argentina announced on Monday that it will launch a new COVID-19 therapy, developed by scientists locally, using serum extracted from horses that developed antibodies after being injected with coronavirus proteins.
The serum developed by the biotechnology company Inmunova has been tested on patients in 18 hospitals for the clinical trials phase and will now be distributed to hospitals and clinics under a special license granted by the ANMAT drug watchdog in Argentina.
Inmunova director Fernando Goldbaum said the serum helps patients by suppressing viral proliferation, giving the body time to gather its own defense system.
Therapy developers say it reduces mortality by 45%.
The laboratory of the Argentine Biological Institute produces about 12,000 treatments per month, according to a press release.
Argentina, with a population of 44 million, has more than 1.7 million cases of coronavirus and nearly 44,500 deaths.