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Abstract
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An outbreak of the 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19) was first identified in Wuhan, China, with the first cases reported in December 2019, and it soon turned into a pandemic infecting thousands of people in China and worldwide. As of April 10, 2020, more than 1.5 million people diagnosed with COVID-19, of whom more than 92,000 (case-fatality rate (CFR) = 6.1%) died (World Health Organization., 2020). Iran became one of the most severely affected countries due to the rapid spread of the virus. By the time of this report on April 10, 2020, Iran is among the top ten countries reporting COVID-19, with 66,220 total confirmed cases and 4,110 total registered deaths (CFR = 6.2%) (World Health Organization., 2020).
Consistent with other countries, the COVID-19 outbreak in Iran has been associated with significant public fear given the rapid growth of the epidemic across the country with all 31 provinces affected (Bao, Sun, Meng, Shi, & Lu, 2020). The shortage of medical care and diagnostic capacity, inconsistent implementation of COVID-19 prevention and mitigation strategies, sustained international pressures from economic sanctions (Takian, Raoofi, & Kazempour-Ardebili, 2020), and limited public knowledge has resulted in misinformation being highly prevalent in Iran. In response to the rapid surge of the COVID-19 pandemic, Iran has applied several mitigation strategies, including the broader use of alcohol-based hand sanitizers. In Iran, alcohol became more available to people and more accessible for them to buy from drugstores as justified for sanitization for COVID-19. However, disinformation has circulated, including that gurgling or drinking alcohol can prevent COVID-19. Recognizing that alcohol use is banned in Iran, people are more likely to consume bootleg alcohols that may include higher levels of methanol. Thus, in parallel with the increased number of COVID-19 cases, an alarming number of methanol-poisoning cases secondary to drinking bootleg alcohol containing methanol, has also been reported in Iran.
The two co-occurring rapidly emerging epidemics represent syndemics where the one has stimulated the increase of the other. Official reports from Iran’s Health Ministry Spokesman indicated that more than 3,100 poisoning cases were reported throughout the country from the first official announcement of deaths due to COVID-19 on February 19, 2020, through April 7, 2020 ...
Language: en |