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.
