US, WASHINGTON (ORDO NEWS) ā Despite the fact that the situation with the spread of coronavirus infection in the Iranian province of Fars is relatively controlled, the statistics of victims of the use of products of local producers of uncertified or āclandestineā alcohol are very alarming.
Fars news agency: As a result of mass alcohol poisoning in the Iranian province of Fars (central Iran ā ed.) , Hundreds of people were immediately taken to the hospital. The head of the Provincial Emergency Committee announced 475 people were hospitalized by the morning of March 22 as a result of alcohol poisoning.
At the same time, the head of the Department for Prevention and Treatment of Drug Dependence at the Institute of Medicine of the city of Shiraz reported that a completely false point of view was spread in the province that allegedly taking alcohol can prevent infection with the COVID-19 virus. According to him, the consumption of alcoholic beverages has nothing to do with the problem of preventing diseases caused by coronavirus. Rather it increases the dependency of people on alcohol, and in turn leads to an addiction problem. Such problems are often treated at an outpatient alcohol rehab center with medication-assisted treatment facility.
According to the head of the provincial Office for Drug Prevention and Treatment of Drug Addiction, Ramin Afshari, with whom the Fars news agency in Shiraz spoke, local producers of āundergroundā alcohol and speculators, given the relatively small amount of alcoholic products that are on legal sale, resort to such technology as mixing industrial alcohol with a whitening solution, completely unsuitable for ingestion, and then the resulting mixture is sold as alcohol.
Noting that at present, thanks to, inter alia, products sold illegally, alcohol consumption at various meetings and public events has significantly increased, and also that mortality from the use of such products has already become comparable to mortality from infection with coronavirus infection, Ramin Afshari emphasized that the use of even five cubic centimeters of industrial alcohol unfit for drinking can cause instant blindness. Intoxication with a little more industrial alcohol is already fatal.
Symptoms of industrial alcohol poisoning, Afshari explained, include manifestations such as sudden visual impairment (the so-called ādark in the eyesā effect), rapid heart rate and palpitations, shortness of breath, shortness of breath, dizziness, and severe headache. Patients with similar symptoms are now massively admitted to the Ali Asgar Hospital in Shiraz, which is actually the only medical institution in the south of the country that provides the therapy necessary for intoxication.
The head of the Department for Treatment and Prevention of Drug Addiction also emphasized that at present, patients infected with coronavirus infection have to be sent to the same hospital. Mortality from alcohol poisoning is increasing due to the fact that the clinic staff simply does not have time to provide immediate medical attention, since many are busy with patients who received coronavirus.
If help with alcohol poisoning was not provided on time, then, as Afshari emphasized, it is almost impossible to save the victim. Ramin Afshari also noted that it has long been recognized by medical science that drinking any amount of alcohol is harmful to the body. This harm is minimal or maximal ā it depends only on the proportions and amount of alcohol that has got into the body. And about alcohol, made not according to standards and completely unsuitable for ingestion, which is spread by speculators, thereās no need to even talk.
As Ramin Afshari noted, many who drank fake alcohol even admitted that they purchased it from people who did not have permission to trade in alcohol. āNow everyone is afraid of coronavirus infection, but we note that at the moment, mortality from the use of so-calledā singed āalcohol is six times higher, and even these data are inaccurate, as many people die before they even go to a medical institution,ā he emphasized. Head of the Department for Combating Alcoholism and Drug Addiction.
Afshari, who is a psychiatrist in his qualifications, assured that it is hardly possible to confuse a patient who had symptoms of alcohol poisoning with a victim of coronavirus infection. At the same time, he said that often people buy alcohol at non-certified points of sale, and then an ordinary person will not be able to distinguish fake alcohol from the real one ā this can only be done in laboratories.
In addition, the doctor noted that the assumption that disinfection of the body can be helped by a liquid that is suitable only for disinfection of surfaces or skin can be absolutely untrue. āThis is a persistent error, which, moreover, is completely untrue. Saliva immediately breaks alcohol into the mouth, and it completely loses its disinfectant properties.
Thus, the ingestion of alcohol inside, whether it is genuine or fake, does not help disinfection of the respiratory system. In addition, a person who often takes alcohol loses the ability to adequately assess his well-being ā he becomes aggressive, restless, it is extremely difficult to persuade him to take medicines that can really help with diseases.
At the same time, Afshari called the belief, deeply rooted in the people, that coronavirus mortality statistics in Russia and the Balkans lower because of the massive consumption of alcohol, very strange and completely wrong. According to him, the low mortality rate in these countries from coronavirus has nothing to do with alcohol consumption. Alcohol, according to the doctor, can only inspire a person to have no symptoms of the disease, he can actually dull the pain or discomfort, but he does not just weaken, but kills the immune system. And the alcohol-dependent is ultimately more susceptible to infectious diseases.
Those who nevertheless experience obvious symptoms of alcohol poisoning should immediately seek help at the hospital. āFor people who have been poisoned by clandestine or low-quality alcohol, there is no outpatient or home treatment: only hospitalization can help from blindness or death,ā said Afshari.
Thus, alcohol should not be used neither for prevention, nor for the treatment of any disease, even coronavirus infection, concludes Afshari. But if in some situations people buy alcohol, then you should pay attention to how the containers are closed or packed, industrial or artisanal, as well as the presence of special labels. In the absence of such, one should refrain from acquiring such products, since in this case the alcohol is definitely fake, the expert recommended.
An increase in mortality due to alcohol poisoning was reported at the University of Medicine and Health Services of Western Azerbaijan Province. This was stated in an interview with Fars by the head of a medical institution in the city of Urmiye (administrative center of Ostan West Azerbaijan ā ed.) Javad Agazade, emphasizing that the increase in alcohol consumption is also associated with public fears due to the outbreak coronavirus.
According to him, the belief that is now spreading among the population that the use of alcohol or even funds intended for external disinfection will help prevent coronavirus infection from entering the body is fundamentally wrong. It not only does not contribute to prevention, but can also cause irreparable harm to the body.
At the same time, the head of the medical institution also noted such alarming statistics as the increase in the number of women poisoned by alcohol and even young children and adolescents, who, obviously, were given alcohol or alcohol to parents to prevent diseases, which is completely unacceptable. He said that with similar symptoms and subsequently found in the body alcohol in a local hospital, a 5-year-old child and a 14-year-old were recently hospitalized, but they were still able to be saved.
The doctor also reported five injured patients with symptoms of alcohol poisoning who had not been saved. Speaking these data, Javad Aga-zade once again urged the population to refrain from drinking alcohol, to keep it away from children and adolescents, and in no case to give alcohol to minors with symptoms of the disease. If a child develops symptoms of pneumonia, he should immediately seek medical help, and not self-medicate, the doctor emphasized.
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