Irish people have been warned not to travel to Turkey to get "dangerous" Botox injections in their stomach in a bid to lose weight, after some people became ill from the treatment.
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) has said that over the past three weeks in Europe there have been 67 cases of poisoning linked to the intragastric injection of Botox. It is understood that these cases of botulism are associated with private clinics in Istanbul and Izmir in Turkey.
Speaking on RTE's Morning Ireland, endocrinologist and obesity physician at St Vincent's Healthcare Group Dr Karl Neff warned the procedure is not a proven treatment for obesity, and that it can be fatal in some cases. He explained: "There are many different methods of attempting to treat obesity and in this method what they attempt to do is to paralyse the stomach.
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Dr Neff said: "So, people know Botox is an agent that you'll use for aesthetic interventions where you basically relax muscles in the face and smooth out lines in the face.
"The stomach is a muscular bag and when it's normally working and we eat, it normally contracts and squeezes food, churns food and then pushes it into the intestine. The idea of intragastric, or gastric Botox is that you paralyse that muscle.
"So what happens is that the stomach does not contract, and therefore when you're eating, it feels more full, more quickly," added Dr Neff. He stressed that this is "not a proven treatment", and that it's unavailable in Ireland in the public sector.
According to Dr Neff, many people are sharing information online about these treatments which can "sometimes be misleading." He said: "People should exercise extreme caution when looking at any of these interventions.
"I would always say to people if something looks too good to be true, it probably is. And if you go to any clinic for any of these interventions and are telling you all good sides and no bad sides, then they're not telling you the whole story."
Dr Neff said that the ECDC has noticed a spike in cases of botulinum toxin poisoning, although as of yet no cases have been reported in Ireland. He said that it's clear that the botulism cases are linked to this gastric Botox intervention treatment that is being offered in Turkey.
Dr Neff explained: "So, the presumption, and this is not known yet, is that either the batch of Botox that was being used in this clinic was either too potent or that it was of the normal potency and was used in too high a dose in the procedure and therefore was resulting in toxicity."
Dr Neff explained how the Botox injection paralyses muscle, and it can also paralyse the respiratory muscles. He said: "And you stop breathing. So in the most severe cases, people would need to go on a ventilator to support their breathing.
"And if they did not have access to a ventilator, they would die. It can be fatal.
"Not in most cases. In most cases there's more single nerves being affected or less vital nerves being affected, and it might be paralysis of say the limbs or facial or throat muscles, but it can be fatal. It is dangerous," added Dr Neff.
Anyone who travelled to Istanbul or Izmir for an intragastric injection of the botulism neurotoxin (BoNT) treatment between February 22 and March 1 is being advised to seek medical help if they experience symptoms of botulism like weakness, difficulty in breathing and/or swallowing.
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