Health Minister meets with advocates for rectal use of ozone as Covid-19 treatment

Interim Health Minister Eduardo Pazuello with advocates for the rectal use of ozone. Photo: Facebook

Interim Health Minister Eduardo Pazuello met this week with members of the Brazilian Society for Medicinal Ozone Therapy (SOBOM), who claim that the rectal application of the ozone gas can be used as an effective treatment for Covid-19. Mr. Pazuello was pictured on social media alongside SOBOM President Maria Emília Serra and three other members of the organization. The matter went viral in Brazil on Tuesday when the mayor of the southern city of Itajaí, Volnei Morastoni, was seen on TV advocating for the rectal application of ozone as a “quick” and “easy” method to treat Covid-19.

It remains widely unclear how the rectal introduction of ozone would be able to treat respiratory diseases such as Covid-19. This therapy is considered experimental in Brazil and is currently only allowed under strict guidelines. The Brazilian Federal Medicine Council strongly advises against its laboratorial use.

The Itajaí City Hall — the only municipal administration in the country to publicly vouch for the practice — say the therapy practice will be allowed in the city within a study by Brazilian Ozone Therapy Association (Aboz), to gauge the effects of rectally introducing the gas to treat Covid-19.

On July 24, The Brazilian Report covered how hydroxychloroquine and other “cures” for Covid-19 have become popular in Latin America, despite little to no scientific evidence of their effectiveness. Rectal ozone therapy could become the next pseudo-cure in vogue in Brazil.

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