Can nasal irrigation with chlorine dioxide be considered as a potential alternative therapy for respiratory infectious diseases? The example of COVID-19.

Chlorine dioxide (ClO) is a high-level disinfectant that is safe and widely used for sterilization. Due to the limitations on preparing a stable solution, direct use of ClO in the human body is limited. Nasal irrigation is an alternative therapy used to treat respiratory infectious diseases. This study briefly summarizes the available evidence regarding the safety/efficacy of directly using ClO on the human body as well as the approach of nasal irrigation to treat COVID-19. Based on the available information, as well as a preliminary experiment that comprehensively evaluated the efficacy and safety of ClO, 25-50 ppm was deemed to be an appropriate concentration of ClO for nasal irrigation to treat COVID-19. This finding requires further verification. Nasal irrigation with ClO can be considered as a potential alternative therapy to treat respiratory infectious diseases, and COVID-19 in particular.