Lecturer and students volunteer time to make sanitizer

Lecturer and students volunteer time to make sanitizer

All the hand sanitizer needed by the University of Otago’s Dunedin campus over the coming weeks has been produced in-house and in record time by a School of Pharmacy senior lecturer and his students.

Pharmaceutical Sciences Senior Lecturer Dr Shyamal Das led the project, making an ethanol-based hand rub. Six of his students helped produce the sanitizer, volunteering their time in the face of the escalating coronavirus crisis, Dr Das said. They are Tushar Saha, Nicole Wood, Rakesh Bastola, Rishi Shah, Prakash Khadka and Bishal Adhikari.

Dr Das says he had wanted to contribute to the community during this COVID19 pandemic but had been unsure how. He had been researching the development of inhalers to help with this disease but knew that would take time.

“So I immediately decided to prepare essential hand sanitizer, of which there is currently a crisis in the market, to help minimize the spread of viruses and save lives. And all my students devoted themselves to this novel initiative, to help in this humanitarian crisis.”

That idea became action following the generous support of Professor Carlo Marra, the Dean of the School of Pharmacy, Dr Das says.

In all, 100 litres of the sanitizer was produced over three long days in six batches, with the last of it completed just before the School of Pharmacy’s doors were locked for the nationwide shutdown on Wednesday, Dr Das said. That amount of sanitizer more than covered the University’s needs.

Emergency and Business Continuity Coordinator Andrew Ferguson says the bulk of the sanitizer was being distributed to the essential services remaining open on campus, including Campus Watch and the campus’s residential colleges.

The excess sanitizer has been made available to Dunedin Public Hospital and Civil Defence.

While the University sanitizer was not available to the public, Mr. Ferguson says it was hoped its production would take a significant amount of pressure off commercial suppliers, freeing up capacity for the general public.

The sanitizer formulation follows World Health Organization recommended guidelines and contains 80% ethanol, glycerol (1.45%) and hydrogen peroxide (0.125% v/v). Quality control testing has been completed to ensure, when used correctly, the sanitizer will help minimize the spread of microorganisms.

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