[ad_1]
A French study revealed that children infected their eyes seven times more after accidentally spraying them with alcoholic hand sanitizer in 2020 compared to 2019.
They found that the number of cases of eye exposure to alcohol-based hand sanitizers, according to the French Poison Control Center (PCC) database, was 232 between April 1 and August 24, 2020.
Hand sanitizer was responsible for 15% of all chemical splashes in the eyes in children in August 2020, up from 5% in April and only 1.3% the year before.
In 2020, 63 cases of children with hand sanitizer on their eyes were reported in a public place, while no cases occurred in 2019.
Scientists studied the number of exposures recorded at the French PCC between April 1, 2020 and August 24, 2020.
During the “Covid-19” pandemic, health officials called for good hand hygiene to reduce transmission.
Hand sanitizer made with at least 70% alcohol is becoming increasingly popular around the world as it is known to kill the Corona virus.
“The widespread use of alcohol-based hand sanitizers has been associated with an increase in unintentional exposure since March 2020, especially in children,” wrote scientists from the French PCC Research Group in their study published in JAMA Ophthalmology.
In an accompanying article published in the same journal, Indian researchers looked at two specific cases of hand sanitizer that got into a child’s eyes, requiring hospital treatment.
The doctors wrote: “Young children are at risk of serious eye injury and possibly blindness from unintentional eye exposure to alcohol-based hand sanitizers. In most public places, hand sanitizers are installed at waist level for an adult, but at eye level or higher for a young child.
And in the case of a five-year-old boy, he went to the hospital an hour after receiving the disinfectant in his eye and was treated within five days.
The French team says that during the study period, 97.8% of cases were distress-free or mild, and children experienced conjunctival pain, tingling, or hyperemia, a condition in which the blood vessels of the eye expand. and they become inflamed.
The researchers said that only 6 cases of moderate severity were reported.
They also say, “To maintain good overall hand sanitizer compliance, these findings support that health authorities should ensure the safe use of alcohol-based hand sanitizer,” according to the Daily Mail.
[ad_2]
