US health officials have seen a rise in people consuming cleaning products who believe it could be an effective treatment for COVID-19.
Two men in Georgia and a man in Kansas were confirmed by local poison centres to have drunk cleaning liquids in an attempt to ward off the virus.
Georgia Poison Center director Gaylord Lopez told local newspaper the Atlanta Journal-Constitution one of the men was taken to hospital after claiming he drank nearly half a litre of bleach.
"He said that he took 16 ounces. I don't know very many patients who will take 16 ounces, but then again, it is a psych history patient."
The man was later transferred to a psychiatric ward and has now been released.
Lopez says the second man was also hospitalised after he ingested multi-purpose cleaner Pine-Sol mixed with mouthwash, beer and pain medication.
He says it's unclear whether the two men drank the cleaners after hearing remarks President Donald Trump made about the effectiveness of injecting disinfectants against the virus during a press conference last week.
"So supposing we hit the body with a tremendous ultraviolet or just a very powerful light, and I think you said that hasn't been checked because of the testing," Trump said at the time.
"And then I said supposing you brought the light inside the body, which you can do either through the skin or some other way, and I think you said you're going to test that too.
"I see the disinfectant that knocks it out in a minute - one minute. And is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside, or almost a cleaning?"
In Kansas, the Poison Control Center there says they've seen at least a 40 percent increase in cases about cleaning products, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment secretary Lee Norman said during a press conference on Monday (local time).
That number includes "a fellow over the weekend who drank a product because of the advice he'd received", Norman says.
"We're doing what we can to counter-message against that kind of remedy," he added.
He didn't specify whether the man who drank cleaning products did so because of Trump's comments, or provide details on the man's condition.
A report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) earlier in April found calls to poison control centres about exposure to cleaners and disinfectants increased 20 percent during the first three months of this year compared to the same period in 2019. However, the sharpest increase in daily calls happened in early March.
While the CDC says the data doesn't show a clear link between exposure to disinfectants and 'treating' COVID-19, the report says it's likely the two are linked due to stay-at-home orders and guidance to frequently clean hands and dirty surfaces.
