SANTA CRUZ, Bolivia — Grover López lay back on a cot as Dr. Viviana Figueroa inserted an IV into his arm. You’ll have to wait here 12 hours while the solution drips into your bloodstream, Figueroa said, telling him the substance would eliminate the metals she said were wreaking havoc on his body.
A mix of chlorine dioxide—an industrial bleach used to disinfect swimming pools and floors—and saline seeped into López’s body through the IV. He’d brought a book for the wait.
But across Latin America, the use of chlorine dioxide to prevent and treat COVID, and even combat the “toxic effects” of vaccines, has taken off, in forms like sprays and intravenous infusions.
Nowhere has the “treatment” gained as much legitimacy as in Bolivia, where the country’s left-wing government legalized the production and sale of chlorine dioxide last year as an alternative treatment for COVID.
Promoters of chlorine dioxide claim it prevents and cures COVID by killing viruses inside the body, just like it does on surfaces. There’s no scientific evidence for that. In fact, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warns that drinking it can cause fatal respiratory failure and heart arrhythmia, among other life-threatening conditions. The Pan American Health Organization says consuming chlorine dioxide products can “cause serious adverse effects” and the marketing of such products to treat COVID should be reported to the authorities.
“People are looking for easy solutions. It’s a rich field for charlatans to prey on,” said René Soria Saucedo, an epidemiologist in Bolivia. “We have enough on our plate with COVID alone, but now we are seeing even more complicated cases because people have consumed chlorine dioxide. It’s a burden on the health system that’s not manageable in this country.”