Citation

Mo T, Sun S, Wang Y, Luo D, Peng B, Xia Y. Medicine (Baltimore) 2016; 95(44): e5162.

Affiliation

aDepartment of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene, School of Public Health and Management, Research Center for Medicine and Social Development, Innovation Center for Social Risk Governance in Health, Canada-China-New Zealand Joint Laboratory of Maternal and Fetal Medicine, Chongqing Medical UniversitybDepartment of Occupational Medicine, Chongqing Prevention and Treatment Center for Occupational DiseasescDepartment of Statistics, School of Public Health and Management, Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, China.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2016, Lippincott Williams and Wilkins)

DOI

10.1097/MD.0000000000005162

PMID

27858849

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Though as a heavy metal, mercury has a long history in the culture of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). Also until now, we can still find evidence of mercury in some Chinese folk prescriptions (CFP)s in China. CASE: We report a case of a 35-year-old rural woman, who took almost 35 g of Hg2O orally to treat her itchy skin followed a folk prescription of an unlicensed practitioners engaging in quackery (UPEQ), which lead to dark red bloody stool and mucus, nausea, and numbness. She sought help from some general hospitals, which brought her only misdiagnosis. Only after a mercury level test conducted by Chongqing Prevention and Treatment Center for Occupational Diseases (CPOD) confirmed her mercury intoxication, she was treated with chelation therapy with sodium dimercaptosulphonat and showed significant improvements.

CONCLUSION: Confused by differences between TCM and CFP, people might take dangerous remedies without realizing the consequences; not only could it exacerbate their primary disease, but it could lead to unexpected and disastrous results.

Language: en