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In mice, the treatment decreased infections caused by the Influenza A virus:
Inhaling low concentrations of ethanol vapor can disable the influenza A virus in mice, without harmful side effects, says a new study by scientists at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST). The scientists believe it may also treat similar viruses such as the one that causes Covid-19.
[...] "Ethanol is an effective disinfectant for body surfaces, so we wanted to know whether ethanol could also be effective inside the body," said Dr. Miho Tamai, a scientist in Prof. Ishikawa's lab.
Using a humidifier to produce ethanol vapor in a small container, they found that when mice infected with influenza A inhale the vapor for ten minutes, the virus is inactivated. The study is published in The Journal of Infectious Diseases.
Influenza A viruses accumulate in a thin fluid layer covering lung cells that protect the surface of the airway. The scientists think that the ethanol vapor must increase ethanol concentrations in the fluid to 20% to successfully treat the infection. This concentration is not toxic to lung cells the scientists created in the lab to mimic human cells. At body temperature, 20% ethanol can not only inactivate the influenza A virus outside of the cells in one minute, but also stop the virus from replicating inside these cells.
[...] Influenza A is a virus that has an outer membrane, called an envelope. "Ethanol vapor may also inactivate other enveloped viruses such as SARS-CoV-2," Prof. Ishikawa said, and so far, all viruses that have caused pandemics have been enveloped. "Once the next pandemic happens, maybe we can quickly apply the ethanol vapor inhalation therapy to prevent or cure the disease," he explained.
[...] The researchers believe that ethanol vapor inhalation treatment has great potential as a versatile and cost-effective new therapy against various respiratory infectious diseases. But Prof. Ishikawa cautioned that people should not try using ethanol as a therapy on their own. "That may lead to serious side-effects or explosion risks," he said. "The efficacy and safety of this new treatment on humans and other mammals should be carefully evaluated in the future."
Journal Reference:
Miho Tamai et al., Effect of Ethanol Vapor Inhalation Treatment on Lethal Respiratory Viral Infection With Influenza A, The Journal of Infectious Diseases, 2023; https://doi.org/10.1093/infdis/jiad089
(Score: 4, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday June 06, @05:37PM (3 children)
>I've had some luck in past decades with treating sore throats and similar minor cold/cough stuff with a couple cold beers or equivalent.
I've had some luck in the past decades with treating newly developing sore throats and similar with ~1/4 shot of straight 80 proof rum just before bed. Just enough to coat the obviously infected surfaces, and at a time when it's not going to be quickly washed away.
About a decade ago, I heard that first-line medical advice for wound healing had shifted to emphasize that alcohol and peroxide should only be used for initial cleaning to reduce infection loads. It seems that after that, the disinfectants' damage to your own tissues actually slows the healing process more than any residual/later bacteria that might get in under any decent bandage.
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(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 06, @08:58PM (1 child)
> treating newly developing sore throats
My father (a down east Yankee from small town Maine, pre-WW1) was taught to lightly swab developing upper sore throats with Mercurochrome, before anyone knew that the mercury could be a problem. Then he switched to iodine.
I've switched to hydrogen peroxide (3%, drug store standard in USA). Soak a Q-tip/cotton swab and coat the painful areas, try not to gag when hitting the soft palate... Then don't eat/drink for awhile.
The directions say it can be used for a mouth wash (diluted 50-50 with water to 1.5%), but don't swallow, so if a tiny bit goes down I don't worry about it. Anecdotally, if I do this at the first sign of a sore throat, I'd say it's well over 50% effective in stopping it right there.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 06, @10:46PM
Not only that, it gets you nicely fucked up. Alcohol - what can it not do???
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 07, @09:32AM
But if they might be infected it's better to "nuke em all" with the 80 proof to be sure. If you're worried about bacterial infection you could follow up with olive oil to coat the "damaged" areas.
YMMV - it's kind Biblical - oil and wine used to treat wounds: https://biblehub.com/luke/10-34.htm [biblehub.com]