Three dead, one permanently blinded after drinking hand sanitizer

Three people have died and one was permanently blinded after drinking hand sanitizer Mexico due to methanol poisoning, whereas, an additional three people remained in critical condition in New Mexico.

The officials of the New Mexico Department of Health said in a statement that three out of seven people who drank hand sanitizer containing methanol died while one was permanently blinded.

The cases were related to alcoholism which had been reported to New Mexico Poison Control over several weeks in May, however, no additional details were provided by the health officials regarding the victims and the exact location of the incidents.

Hand sanitizers are being used by some people to get intoxicated due to its alcohol content which led the authorities to ban its usage in most of the prisons, however, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention later recommended to relax the restrictions to help fight coronavirus pandemic, CNN reported.

According to a report published by Dailymail UK, the US Food and Drug Administration had warned consumers not to use nine hand sanitizers made by a Mexican company because of methanol levels.

However, it was unclear whether the deaths in New Mexico were caused by the same type of hand sanitizers.

The health officials said that the exposure to a significant amount of methanol could result in nausea, vomiting, headache, blurred vision, permanent blindness, seizures, coma, permanent damage to the nervous system or death.

New Mexico Health Secretary Kathy Kunkel asked people to seek medical care if they used or consumed hand sanitizer containing methanol. The secretary added, “An antidote to methanol poisoning is available, but the earlier someone gets treated for methanol poisoning the better the chance of recovery.”