COSTA RICAN ADULT POPULATION OPINION ABOUT THE USE OF MEDICINES AND SUBSTANCES NOT APPROVED AS THERAPY AGAINST COVID-19

Abstract

On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared it a pandemic by the COVID-19 disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 microorganism. The lack of treatments against this disease has led to the use of complementary therapies not approved by the Costa Rican population, to face it, which is a problem for public health. The objective of this study was to establish the opinion of the Costa Rican adult population on the use of complementary therapies not approved for the treatment of the COVID-19 disease, for which, an investigation with a two-way approach was developed. It was determined that 64 % of the population knows the existence of unauthorized complementary therapies against COVID-19, the best-known being chlorine dioxide. In addition, 78% of the people surveyed would not be willing to use them, and the main reason for this is that they do not consider them effective. In addition, after an interview with a person who has used chlorine dioxide as a prevention against COVID-19, it was possible to know the motivations he had for doing so and his experience in its use, revealing a deep root of the interviewee with the supposed effectiveness of the therapy. As a conclusion, it was possible to establish that the Costa Rican adult population has a mostly unfavorable opinion about the use of non-approved therapies for the treatment of this disease, however there are still people who trust them and use them despite not being approved.

Key words: Complementary therapies, coronavirus infections, chlorine dioxide. Source: MeSH.