COVID‐19 pandemic and methanol poisoning outbreak in Iranian children and adolescents: A data linkage study

Autor: Maryam Akhgari, Farzad Gheshlaghi, Sara Ebrahimi, Neda Mohtasham, Fariba Farnaghi, Pardis Ziaeefar, Farkhondeh Jamshidi, Seyed Davood Mirtorabi, Mohammad Moshiri, Rebecca McDonald, Ali-Asghar Kolahi, Seyed Amirhosein Mahdavi, Narges Gholami, Hossein Hassanian-Moghaddam, Basak Tas, Bita Dadpour, Amir Mohammad Kazemifar, Nasim Zamani, Alireza Amirabadizadeh, Mohammadreza Ghadirzadeh
Rok vydání: 2021
Předmět:
Zdroj: Alcoholism, Clinical and Experimental Research
ISSN: 1530-0277
0145-6008
DOI: 10.1111/acer.14680
Popis: Background During the first wave of COVID‐19, many Iranians were poisoned by ingesting hand sanitizers and/or alcoholic beverages to avoid viral infection. To assess whether the COVID‐19 pandemic resulted in an increased prevalence of accidental hand sanitizer/alcoholic beverage exposure in children and adolescents, we compared pediatric hospitalization rates during COVID‐19 and the previous year. For poisoning admissions during COVID‐19, we also evaluated the cause by age and clinical outcomes. Methods This retrospective data linkage study evaluated data from the Legal Medicine Organization (reporting mortalities) and hospitalization data from nine toxicology referral centers for alcohol‐poisoned patients (age 0 to 18 years) for the study period (February 23 to June 22, 2020) and the pre‐COVID‐19 reference period (same dates in 2019). Results Hospitalization rates due to ethanol and methanol exposure were significantly higher in 2020 (n = 375) than 2019 (n = 202; OR [95% CI] 1.9 [1.6, 2.2], p
During the first wave of COVID‐19 pandemic, Iran experienced the worldwide biggest methanol outbreak recorded to date. The outbreak triggered by consumption of toxic alcoholic beverages or hand sanitizers, partially motivated by the belief that ingestion would protect against COVID‐19 infection. Our study shows that children and adolescents were also affected, with 22 deaths due to methanol exposure recorded in 2020. These were significantly higher in Feb‐June 2020 (during COVID‐19), compared to the corresponding time period in 2019.
Databáze: OpenAIRE
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