BioScience Trends. 2022;16(6):447-450. (DOI: 10.5582/bst.2022.01495)

Can nasal irrigation with chlorine dioxide be considered as a potential alternative therapy for respiratory infectious diseases? The example of COVID-19

Cao J, Shi Y, Wen M, Peng Y, Miao Q, Liu X, Zheng M, Asakawa T, Lu H

Chlorine dioxide (ClO₂) is a high-level disinfectant that is safe and widely used for sterilization. Due to the limitations on preparing a stable solution, direct use of ClO₂ in the human body is limited. Nasal irrigation is an alternative therapy used to treat respiratory infectious diseases. This study briefly summarizes the available evidence regarding the safety/efficacy of directly using ClO₂ on the human body as well as the approach of nasal irrigation to treat COVID-19. Based on the available information, as well as a preliminary experiment that comprehensively evaluated the efficacy and safety of ClO₂, 25-50 ppm was deemed to be an appropriate concentration of ClO₂ for nasal irrigation to treat COVID-19. This finding requires further verification. Nasal irrigation with ClO₂ can be considered as a potential alternative therapy to treat respiratory infectious diseases, and COVID-19 in particular.

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