Methanol poisoning during COVID-19 pandemic; A systematic scoping review

Objective: In this systematic scoping review, itwas aimed to assess the epidemiology ofmethanol poisoning, clinical findings and patients' management, causes, and recommendations regarding prevention or reduction of methanol poisoning during COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: Three Electronic databases [Medline (accessed from PubMed), Scopus, and Science Direct] were searched systematically fromDecember 01, 2019 to September 10, 2020, usingMESH terms and the related keywords in English language. Considering the titles and abstracts, unrelated studieswere excluded. The full texts of the remained studies were evaluated by authors, independently. Then, the studies' findings were assessed and reported. Results: Total of 86 articleswere obtainedwithin the first step of searching, and 64 ones remained after removing the duplications. Through the title and abstract screening, 35 were removed. Finally, after reading the full text of the remained articles, 15 ones included in data extraction. Most of the previous reported evidence (13/15) were letter to editor, commentary and short reports. None of themwere interventional, and none of themfollowed the patients. Findings were summarized in four categories: 1) epidemiology; 2) clinical findings and patients' management; 3) causes; and 4) recommendation regarding prevention or reduction of methanol poisoning during COVID-19 pandemic. Conclusion: The recent outbreak is the largestmethanolmass poisoning outbreak throughout Iran and the world in recent decades. The causes ofmethanol poisoning during the COVID-19 pandemic are intertwined, andmost of them are modifiable by health policy makers. Building trust, educating and warning, as well as controlling and monitoring are three main recommendation for prevention or reduction of methanol poisoning. (C) 2021 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

This systematic scoping review assessed the epidemiology, clinical findings, patient management, causes, and recommendations for prevention or reduction of methanol poisoning during the COVID-19 pandemic. After searching and evaluating relevant studies, the findings were summarized in four categories. The results indicate that methanol poisoning poses significant challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic.