http://www.inchem.org/documents/ehc/ehc/ehc21.htm
so, these early reported therapeutic effects of ClO2 on influenza
by Vedder,Sawyer,Gilchrist,...
apparantly were not confirmed later and ClO2 hadn't been
used for influenza therapy.
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6.1.1.3. Respiratory diseases
As early as 1816, Wallace suggested that chlorine might have
medical applications; and in 1833, Bourgeois was reported to have
used it successfully in the treatment of tuberculosis (Gilchrist,
1924). During the latter part of the nineteenth century and the
first decades of the twentieth century, there were sporadic reports
of the therapeutic effects of chlorine. Baskerville (1919) was of
the opinion that small amounts of chlorine decreased the incidence
of respiratory disease among workers. Vedder & Sawyer (1924)
reported that chlorine inhalations were used in 1915 in Germany, to
clear meningococcus and diphtheria carriers, and in 1918 in the
USA as a treatment for influenza. They conducted a series of
studies based on clinical observations that workers at a war gas
production plant did not suffer from influenza during the great
epidemic. They found that cultures of a variety of bacterial
agents were effectively destroyed by exposure to chlorine at
concentrations of 21 mg/m3 of air (0.021 mg/litre, 7.2 ppm), a
level they considered well within the limit of safety for human
exposure. The bactericidal action was reported to be greater in
vivo. A 1-h exposure to 20 mg/m3 of air (6.9 ppm) effectively
sterilized the tonsillar, postnasal, and pharyngeal surfaces of one
subject, and a level of 15 mg/m3 (0.015 mg/litre, 5.2 ppm) cured or
produced clinical improvement in 95% of a series of 931 patients
suffering from a variety of respiratory tract infections. In a
follow-up series of 93 patients with coryza, acute bronchitis,
chronic bronchitis, or influenza, 100% were reportedly cured or
improved.
The therapeutic effects of chlorine were further discussed by
Gilchrist (1924). During World War I, medical officers assigned to
the front lines observed an apparent immunity to influenza in their
troops. They attributed this lack of susceptibility to the disease
to chlorine exposure and therefore used chlorine to treat respiratory
diseases. Following these observations and the work of Vedder &
Sawyer, Gilchrist constructed an inhalation chamber and treated
some 900 patients with chlorine. Those with infectious diseases
tended to show improvement; those with asthma or hay fever did not.
He was of the opinion that 1-h exposures to levels sufficient to
produce mild irritation of the throat and eyes were the most
efficacious.
While the results of these controlled therapeutic inhalations
appear dramatic, the studies of both Vedder & Sawyer and Gilchrist
were conducted without unexposed comparison groups. In Gilchrist's
study, no attempt was made to document disease at the onset or to
evaluate its evolution medically. The patients came with their own
diagnosis and reported the outcome.
Though these studies reflect an interesting and historical
hypothesis for the medical application of chlorine, experience has
not provided justification for its practical use in this context.
ClO2 gas protects at very low concentration
Linear Mode
