(Adds fresh comment and detail throughout)
By Kate Kelland
LONDON, April 24 (Reuters) - Doctors and health experts
urged people not to drink or inject disinfectant on Friday after
U.S. President Donald Trump suggested scientists should
investigate inserting the cleaning agent into the body as a way
to cure COVID-19.
"This is one of the most dangerous and idiotic suggestions
made so far in how one might actually treat COVID-19," said Paul
Hunter, a professor of medicine at Britain's University of East
Anglia. He said infecting disinfectants would be likely to kill
anyone who tried it.
"It is hugely irresponsible because, sadly, there are people
around the world who might believe this sort of nonsense and try
it out for themselves," he told Reuters.
Trump said at his daily media briefing on Thursday that
scientists should explore whether inserting light or
disinfectant into the bodies of people infected with the new
coronavirus might help them clear the disease.
"Is there a way we can do something like that by injection,
inside, or almost a cleaning?," he said. "It would be
interesting to check that."
While ultraviolet (UV) light is known to kill viruses
contained in droplets in the air, doctors say there is no way it
could be introduced into the human body to target cells infected
with COVID-19.
"Neither sitting in the sun, nor heating will kill a virus
replicating in an individual patient's internal organs," said
Penny Ward, a professor in pharmaceutical medicine at Kings
College London and chair of the Education and Standards
Committee of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine.
"Drinking bleach kills. Injecting bleach kills faster. Don’t
do either!," she added.
Reckitt Benckiser, which manufacturers household
disinfectants Dettol and Lysol, issued a statement also warning
people not to ingest or inject its products.
Parastou Donyai, director of pharmacy practice and a
professor of social and cognitive pharmacy at the University of
Reading, said Trump's comments were shocking and unscientific.
Donyai said people worried about the new coronavirus and the
COVID-19 disease it causes should seek help from a qualified
doctor or pharmacist, and "not take unfounded and off-the-cuff
comments as actual advice".
Robert Reich, a professor of public policy at the University
of California at Berkeley and a former U.S. labour secretary,
added on Twitter: "Trump's briefings are actively endangering
the public's health. Please don't drink disinfectant".
Reading's Donyai said previous comments by Trump had already
been linked to people self-administering medicines or other
products in ways that make them poisonous.
"We have already seen people mistakenly poisoning themselves
by taking chloroquine when their hopes were raised by
unscientific comments," she said.
(Reporting by Kate Kelland, Editing by William Maclean)
