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Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has seen people and governments utilise an array of chemical and pharmaceutical substances in an attempt to prevent and treat COVID-19 infections. The Centre for Radiation, Chemicals and Environmental Hazards (CRCE) at Public Health England (PHE) routinely undertakes Event-Based Surveillance (EBS) to monitor public health threats and incidents related to chemicals and poisons. From April 2020, EBS functions were expanded to screen international media for potentially hazardous exposures associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. Media sources reported that poisons centres were experiencing increased enquiries associated with the use and misuse of household cleaners and alcohol-based hand sanitiser (HS). There were also media reports of people self-medicating with over-the-counter supplements and traditional or herbal remedies. Public figures who directly or indirectly facilitated misinformation were sometimes reported to be associated with changes in poisoning trends. Border closures were also believed to have been associated with increasingly toxic illicit drug supplies in Canada, and record numbers of opioid-related deaths were reported. In other countries, where the sale of alcohol was banned or limited, home-brewing and methanol-based supplies resulted in a number of fatalities. At least two chemical incidents also occurred at industrial sites in India, after sites were left unattended or were closed and reopened due to lockdown measures. Reports of poisoning identified in the international media were provided to the UK National Poisons Information Service (NPIS) and contributed to the UK COVID-19 public health response.
Highlights
IntroductionPublisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations
Results of COVID-related toxicovigilance work were shared with other government stakeholders, such as Public Health England (PHE) colleagues working on the COVID-19 incident response
For more detailed information on the substances and associated articles that inform Table 2, please refer to Supplementary Table S2, which provides a high-level summary of the context, poisonings and reports associated with each substance
Summary
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. On the 30th of January 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced the spread of COVID-19 across borders and the threat it posed to the health of populations constituted a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC). Healthcare and public health systems had to integrate this novel threat into a host of regular functions, including, but not limited to, diagnostic, treatment and risk communication workstreams [1]. Alongside the pandemic and its immediate impacts, misinformation around novel treatments and potential mitigation measures resulted in secondary health threats [2]
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