Health Deptt sleeping over grave issue
Govind Sharma
JAMMU, Apr 25: Notwithstanding the advisory of Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) against use of disinfectants on people for COVID-19 management, Jammu Municipal Corporation (JMC) is continuously installing disinfection tunnels in Government offices and health institutions under its jurisdiction.
Official sources said that JMC has installed 20 such disinfection/sanitization tunnels till date. While one at Government Medical College, Jammu was constructed and installed by engineers of the Corporation themselves, the tender for construction and installation of 20 others was given to Vigilon India (a private firm) by the Corporation. Of the target of installing 20 tunnels in busy public places, Vigilon India has installed 19 tunnels till date and only one is pending for which work is underway.
“While 3 such disinfection tunnels have been installed in High Court complex, 4 at Ware House Bikram Chowk, 2 at JMC office, one each has been installed at Super Speciality Hospital Jammu, Chest Disease Hospital, Psychiatric Hospital, Government Hospital Sarwal, Government Hospital Gandhi Nagar, Government Dental College & Hospital, CRPF Hospital Bantalab, ASCOMS Hospital, Vegetable & Fruit Market Narwal and Yatri Niwas, Bhagwati Nagar,” sources said.
The principle behind these disinfectant tunnels is wash your hands and walk through a tunnel in which overhead sprayers sprinkle disinfectant, sources said, adding, believing that this two-step process can considerably reduce the number of germs on an individual, several States of the country started installing such tunnels but many States discontinued installation of such tunnels few days back following concerns raised about its effectiveness and the harm it may cause to human health by Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
Sources said that MoHFW had in a recent advisory cautioned against the spraying of disinfectant on people as part of measures to mitigate the COVID-19 pandemic and had explicitly said that “disinfectants are recommended for the cleaning and disinfection only of frequently touched areas or surfaces by those suspected or confirmed to have been infected” by the virus.
The Ministry had made it clear that the spraying (of disinfectant) on individuals or groups was “not recommended under any circumstances” and that even if a person was potentially exposed to the Novel Coronavirus, spraying the external part of the body did not guarantee killing the virus that had entered one’s body.
“Also, there is no scientific evidence to suggest that they are effective even in disinfecting the outer clothing in an effective manner,” the Health Ministry noted in its advisory and observed that the use of such measures could in fact “lead to a false sense of safety and actually hamper public observance to hand washing and social distancing measures”.
Sources, however regretted that such disinfection tunnels are being constructed and installed by the JMC despite being well versed with advisory of MoHFW and thus are wasting the public money and playing with the health of residents. They said that even in the neighboring States like Punjab, advisory has been issued by Health Department to all Deputy Commissioners that disinfection tunnels should not be installed and used but the J&K Government is sleeping over the issue and has given free hand to JMC to play with the health of the citizens.
“Microbiological experts are also of the same view that spraying of disinfectant on the human body or their clothes cannot kill any virus but instead can cause lung problems and skin allergies and may be harmful for eyes,” sources added.
When contacted, Director Health Services, Dr Renu Sharma said that they are not at all involved in installation of disinfection tunnels and they don’t know whether these are safe or unsafe. “Moreover, we have not received any formal advisory from the Government but read about that in newspapers,” she added. She further said that JMC has not sought permission from the Directorate to install such tunnels in the health institutions but it is possible that they may have sought permission from concerned heads of the Health facilities.
However, Health Officer, JMC, Dr Shamim Mir, claimed that the sanitization tunnels are safe and do not harm human body. He said that before working on these tunnels, they have sought advice from Principals of GMC Jammu and GMC Srinagar and only after getting green signal from them, they started installing these tunnels.
“We have seen advisory of the MoHFW wherein the spraying of Sodium Hypochlorite has been mentioned harmful but we are not using this chemical, we are using Quapernary Ammonium Compound that too after seeking experts’ advice,” he added.
Principal, GMC Jammu, Dr Sunanda Raina said that JMC had sought their opinion and for that they (Principal office) had constituted a committee of experts from Microbiology, Dermatology and Pharmacology departments. She said while Pharamacology and Microbiology experts gave positive comments, Dermatology expert had given negative comments and raised concern over harmful affects of the chemical spray on the skin. “We had shared opinion of all the three experts with the Health Officer of JMC and accordingly they took decision,” she added.
When contacted, Commissioner, JMC, Avny Lavasa, also shared similar views as by Health Officer, JMC. She said, “We are using different compound for spray while the advisory was against use of Sodium Hypochlorite. Moreover, these tunnels are not for sanitization of human body but PPEs worn by health officials and others”.
She further said that they are just following instructions of Government of J&K “and as of now we have not received any instruction from the UT Government to discontinue installation of sanitization tunnels.”
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