Twenty-seven people have died of methanol poisoning in Iran, after rumors spread that consuming alcohol was helping to cure the emerging corona virus (Covid-19), IRNA reported.
Twenty people died in Khuzestan Province (southwestern Iran), and seven in Alborz province, as a result of consuming adulterated alcoholic drinks, according to the official IRNA agency.
Drinking alcohol is prohibited in the Islamic Republic, but the prohibition does not include non-Muslim minorities.
Local media usually report deaths from adulterated alcohol poisoning.
Ali Ihsan Bor, a spokesman for the Jundi Shahpur University Hospital in Ahvaz (the capital of Khuzestan governor), said that 218 people were hospitalized with poisoning cases.
Ihsan Pour said the poisonings were caused by "rumors that alcohol consumption could be effective in treating the Corona virus."
IRNA quoted Mohamed Agha Yari, Deputy Prosecutor General in Albers governorate, as saying that the deceased drank methanol after they fell victim to "misleading text published on the Internet", believing that drinking alcohol "combats" and "cures" the Corona virus.
High amounts of methanol can lead to vision loss, liver damage and even death.
Iran is seeking to contain the new Corona virus, which has spread in all its provinces, and has killed 237 people, and infected more than seven thousand.
As of Sunday, Iran had registered 69 deaths from the Corona virus, including 16 cases in Khuzestan province, according to the IRNA agency.