Bolivia approves toxic bleach as Coronavirus treatment despite reports of people being hospitalised after taking it

A bill legalizing a toxic bleach as a cure for Coronavirus treatment has been approved by the lower house of Bolivia’s legislature.

According to local media reports, the country’s Legislative Assembly approved the bill, which had already passed the Bolivian Senate despite reports of people being hospitalised after taking it.

The bill allows for the “production, commercialization, and supply of chlorine dioxide solution to prevent COVID-19 and as a treatment for sick patients.”

Chlorine dioxide is an industrial bleach commonly used as a disinfectant, or to bleach paper products, which conspiracy theorists and alternative medicine advocates have hailed it as a miracle cure capable of curing any illness.

They call it “Miracle Mineral Solution,” or MMS.

According to Business Insider, there have been cases across Bolivia of people being hospitalised after taking chlorine dioxide.

The country’s ministry of health has warned people against taking the substance and will prosecute anyone producing and selling it.

In June medical regulators in the country released a statement warning that chlorine dioxide “puts the health of the population that consumes or intends to do so at serious risk.”

It added that the US Food and Drug Administration says it has recorded reports of “severe vomiting, severe diarrhoea, life-threatening low blood pressure caused by dehydration and acute liver failure after drinking these products”.

Bolivia has recorded 101,223 cases of Coronavirus and 4,123 deaths so far.