At least 300 are dead and 1,000 more sick after drinking methanol in hopes of protecting themselves from the coronavirus.
As the virus continues to ravage the country, fake cures and remedies have proliferated on social media, many based off of alcohol. Alcohol is banned in Iran, and because of the prohibition, bootleggers have distilled methanol, which is considered industrial alcohol and is different than ethanol, which is the active ingredient in liquor.
Hossein Hassanian, an adviser with Iran’s Health Ministry, said the problem of methanol consumption is compounding deaths in the country and is an unexpected result of the pandemic.
“Other countries have only one problem, which is the new coronavirus pandemic,” Hassanian said. “We have to both cure the people with the alcohol poisoning and also fight the coronavirus.”
“Unfortunately, in some provinces, including Khuzestan and Fars, deaths from drinking methanol has exceeded the number of deaths by the new coronavirus,” Hassanian added.
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Iran claims that more than 32,000 people have been infected and that about 2,300 have died, although that number is disputed. One leading dissident group, the National Council of Resistance of Iran, claims to have tallied almost 12,000 deaths there as of Thursday.
Iran’s health minister warned the country last week that a person dies from COVID-19 every 10 minutes in the country. State media has also warned that if health warnings are ignored, millions of people might die in Iran.
As of Thursday evening, there have been more than 585,000 worldwide cases of the flu-like virus, about 130,000 recoveries, and at least 26,800 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.
