Methanol toxicity outbreak: when fear of COVID-19 goes viral

On the Nature of Fear and Anxiety Triggered by COVID-19

“…Fear of the unknown Mertens et al, 2020Satici et al, 2020b Bradbury-Jones and Isham, 2020 Casale and Flett, 2020King et al, 2020Lin, 2020Mertens et al, 2020Thombs et al, 2020Yang et al, 2020Hypochondriasis Akgün et al, 2020Asmundson and Taylor, 2020Banerjee, 2020McKay et al, 2020Rajkumar, 2020Schimmenti et al, 2020Thombs et al, 2020Vanni et al, 2020Wong et al, 2020Disgust Brooks et al, 2020McKay et al, 2020Mota et al, 2020Satici et al, 2020bTroisi, 2020 Information-driven Ali, 2020 Taylor, 2020 Erku et al, 2020 Landau-Wells and Saxe, 2020 Sefidbakht et al, 2020Compliance Brooks et al, 2020Fernandez, 2020Harper et al, 2020Jørgensen et al, 2020Mertens et al, 2020Olesen et al, 2020Presti et al, 2020 of several specialties such as those who perform or participate in head and neck region examinations (e.g., Ota and Asada, 2020), dental and oral medicine (Meng et al, 2020), ophthalmologists (e.g., Shabto et al, 2020), etc. Delayed access to hospital care for emergency conditions deriving from workers' multiple roles adds to the panoply of stressful conditions, affecting many with unrelated problems such as children's occasional infections, acute onset of chronic conditions, endocrine disorders (e.g., diabetes), or surgical needs (e.g., appendicitis; Lazzerini et al, 2020).…”

“…There is a proliferation of fake medicines, fake news, and medication misinformation surrounding COVID-19 (Erku et al, 2020). For example, the belief that consumption of alcohol can be beneficial in preventing the COVID-19 infection leads to an outbreak of methanol poisoning in Iran (Sefidbakht et al, 2020).…”

Increased production of illegal alcoholic beverages during the COVID-19 pandemic in Hamadan, Iran

“…Methanol is found naturally or unnaturally (as a counterfeit additive) at different levels in alcoholic beverages, and methanol intoxication was one of the most important causes of death due to poisoning with nonstandard alcoholic drinks in Iran, which was a problem that increased during the COVID-19 pandemic [ 7 , 8 ]. It is estimated that the total number of people killed by alcoholic beverages contaminated with methanol from Mar to Apr 2020 was about ten times greater than the same period in 2019 [ 5 ].…”

“…Once COVID-19 spread widely and excessive alcohol consumption increased dramatically in Iran, methanol poisoning also rose markedly. For instance, the evidence shows a sharp increase in the number of methanol poisoning cases during Mar and Apr 2020 (also see Table 2 ), as of 16 Apr 2020, there were 797 reported cases of methanol intoxication, including 97 deaths, in Iran’s Fars province [ 8 ].…”

Unravelling the Enigma of Hand Sanitizer In COVID-19 – A Bibliometric Analysis of Related Publications Over the Year

“…CDC released an advisory on a speci c methanol-based hand sanitizer manufactured in Mexico, due to the potential presence of methanol (CDC 2020). A dramatic increase in methanol poisoning-related morbidity and mortality from consumption of sanitizers, alcohol on belief to prevent COVID-19 infection has been reported in Iran during the early phase of the pandemic (Se dbakht et al 2020;Shokoohi et al 2020).…”