Iodine latest COVID fallacy
Antiseptic touted as ‘wonder drug’
Iodine ingestion is the latest in a new trend of unapproved COVID-19 treatments gaining attention on social media and baffling authorities.
Troubling claims championing a new COVID-19 “wonder drug” in povidone-iodine, an antiseptic commonly used as skin disinfectant before and after surgeries, have risen in recent weeks.
Advocates for the unproven remedy say that either gargling or inhaling the over-the-counter iodine nasally or orally can cure a coronavirus infection, but experts say this is a serious misconception.
“You definitely don’t want to swallow (iodine),” said Dr. Dale Bratzler, chief COVID-19 officer at the University of Oklahoma. “There’s no proof that it prevents you from getting COVID-19, and there’s no proof that it can prevent the spread.”
Bratzler said some studies have only suggested a small use of povidone-iodine “can reduce the viral count, at least in the mouth and nasal cavities, but you’re not going to cure COVID-19 by doing that.”
Nasal application of povidone-iodine sometimes has been used to reduce chances of bacterial staph infection during surgical procedures. A gargling, diluted liquid version of iodine has also been available for many years to temporarily alleviate sore throat symptoms, but companies making the product have steadfastly warned it is not effective against coronavirus.
“Betadine Antiseptic First Aid products should only be used to topically treat minor cuts, scrapes and burns,” according to Betadine, a manufacturer producing the most popular brand of iodine antiseptic. “The First Aid products should not be used as a gargle.”
Betadine states at least four times on the company website its “[a]ntiseptic products have not been demonstrated to be effective for the treatment or prevention of COVID- 19 or any other viruses.”
Not a state concern yet
As of late September, iodine use against COVID-19 has not shown any noticeable pattern in Oklahoma, contrasting with recent spikes in ivermectin (an anti-parasitic drug) for similar alternative purposes.
“I personally have not heard of any
patients in our (OU Health) system with iodine toxicity from oral povidone-iodine with COVID,” Bratzler said.
Scott Schaeffer, managing director of the Oklahoma Center for Poison and Drug Information, issued an alert during the summer when poison controls nationwide experienced an increase in human exposure-related calls involving ivermectin. As far as iodine goes, however, that trend has not repeated.
The poison center has only recorded five cases of topical or internal iodine exposure since May, and none of them were evidently coronavirus-related, Schaeffer said.
“Four of them were the typical type of thing where a child gets into either an iodine supplement or a Betadine bottle, picks it up and drinks from it,” he said. “The other was a person who was gargling with Betadine, but for a sore throat, and didn’t mention COVID, so I’m inclined to think that it was not with the intent of treating or preventing COVID.”
‘Not recommended’
Symptoms of iodine toxicity include severe nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. Povidone-iodine is not made for oral consumption, and experts warn against taking it contrary to recommended or prescriptive purposes, even in small doses.
“In one of the studies that was prevalently published but was a relatively small study of 24 people, 42% of them had thyroid dysfunction temporarily while they were getting this povidoneiodine treatment,” Bratzler said. “It’s not recommended.”
Schaeffer made a distinction between Betadine iodine and stronger formulations like potassium iodine.
“Potassium iodine, for example, is a form that, if enough is ingested, it can cause some really severe gastrointestinal issues,” Schaeffer said. “Betadine and those type of products are very low in concentration. If a person were to get a pure form of iodine, like the potassium iodine, it could potentially cause pretty significant burns in the mouth, the throat, the esophagus. The last thing you want to do is burn a hole in the stomach or the esophagus.”
Even if the Betadine iodine is significantly less harmful than potassium iodine, Schaeffer said he still can’t condone using it outside of a prescribed pattern.
“People could be using it as a nasal spray, which can cause severe irritation up in the nasal passages,” Schaeffer said. “Swallowing it can cause vomiting. Frankly, there’s no decent, medically recognized evidence that you’re doing any benefit by it.”
Looking for sources
It is unclear where precisely the claims of povidone-iodine as a COVID-19 treatment were popularized, but contradictory reports suggest either France or Japan.
“We do see that, occasionally, things really take off in other countries and spread here, but the converse is true also,” Schaeffer said. “There’s some stuff that starts here and goes out, and that’s one of the consequences, I think, of everybody being so interconnected through the internet.”
Schaeffer, who keeps in close contact with other poison control centers throughout the U.S., said he has not seen anything elsewhere indicating a dramatic increase in iodine-related calls.
“Nationally, I can’t say with authority that there’s not some kind of epidemic of iodine, but we would have heard something,” he said.
Oklahoma is the only state producing iodine in the country and ranks behind just Chile and Japan when it comes to global production.
Leroy Goodman, CEO and president of Woodward Iodine Corp., did not respond to requests for interviews. His chemical plant, located in Woodward County, produces iodine for use in products like table salt, mouthwash and disinfectants. Woodward Iodine also has ties with Ise Chemical Corp. in Tokyo, Japan.
Bratzler and Schaeffer both stressed that the only effective prevention for COVID-19 that stood up under any scrutiny is the vaccine.
“To date, the most effective things that we’ve seen are vaccinations and masks,” Schaeffer said.
“And even though we do occasionally see breakthrough infections, the reality is that those (vaccinated) people are much, much less likely to be hospitalized or end up having complications or death from COVID-19,” Bratzler said. “So vaccination is, by far, the most effective way to prevent COVID illness.”