Doctors warn public on mercury injections
There is nothing new about people going to the United States for medical treatment, except that a recent excursion has revealed the possibility of a new and potentially fatal type of substance abuse in Belize. Mercury, also known as quicksilver, is an element usually used in thermometers, but a Belizean admitted to Cook County Hospital in Chicago for mercury poisoning revealed to her doctor that she and others have been taking mercury injections for years, ostensibly for medicinal purposes. The Chicago doctor alerted the Centre for Disease Control in Atlanta, which then contacted Dr. Carl Meggs, chairman of the Medical Council in Belize. He in turn, has put out the word to his colleagues. According to Dr. Miguel Rosado of the Fort George Medical and Dental Clinic, during the past two weeks another person was diagnosed with mercury poisoning, but this time the incident occurred in Belize City.
Dr. Miguel Rosado, Paediatrician Nephrologist
“Mercury was utilised initially as a local anaesthetic medication in the pre-antibiotic era for Syphilis. It is also used to treat pediculosis and an ointment, especially for the eyelashes, but it is no longer utilised as a medication. It is very, very toxic. It causes damages to the brain, respiratory system, gastro-intestinal and a severe affection of the kidneys. We have heard rumours of mercury used as an injection, there isn’t any country that is utilising it legally. We know about the existence of several people, non-medical, utilising different types of medication either by tablets or injection throughout the country of Belize. Nobody has monitored what they’re utilising, we know about people in San Ignacio, Little Belize, Xaibe, Corozal District, but we don’t know what type of medication they’re using.”
Jose Sanchez
“What are the effects on the body after someone has taken mercury?”
Dr. Miguel Rosado
“We know about cases that have been intoxicated and they have been critically ill and if this usage of this medication is continued we will have fatal outcomes. We know about cases that have about one injection of mercury and the lesion had been detected twelve years afterwards, so it is something that has an acute effect. That means on a short term basis and it also has a chronic effect. Unfortunately in the acute phase, depending on the concentration or the amount of medication utilised we know that the patient will have severe affection of the brain and the other organs that I mentioned and the patient can have a fatal outcome if they’re not treated adequately. So it is very important that we determine or find the source of who is administering this type of mercury injection and stop it.”
Rosado says that doctors or any member of the public suspecting mercury abuse, should report it to the Ministry of Health or the Belize Medical Council.
