Irfan Tramboo
Srinagar, Apr 3: As the shortage of masks and Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) kits is felt across Kashmir, the handmade masks that people are making these days are unsafe for the use.
There have been instances where people individually as well as various NGOs have been making the masks and other protective gears and were even distributed among people in several areas.
Some NGOs have apparently distributed PPE Kits to doctors working in several COVID-19 designated hospitals which are said to be not up to the mark.
The doctors are of the opinion that not everyone can get up and start making handmade masks at home. There are certain guidelines that are to be followed before doing that.
Dr Auqfeen Nisar from the Department of Social and Preventive Medicines (SPM), Government Medical College (GMC), Srinagar told Excelsior that there has to be a particular material which is to be used for making masks-and the masks made of pure cloth are hazardous to heath.
“These masks are not safe; the proper masks are made of particular material with particular pore size for the protection, such masks are sterilized, while those that are being distributed are not,” she said, adding that nobody know how many people might have touched those masks before reaching to the end user.
A doctor from SKIMS Medical College and Hospital, Bemina told Excelsior that the hospital had given them the PPE kits donated by some NGO-which they did not use due to its quality.
“A proper PPE has to be triple layered, but they had given us something which we refused to wear and were donated by an NGO,” the doctor said.
However, a senior doctor at SKIMS terms the PPE kits distributed at SKIMS, Bemina as safe and up to the marks.
Another doctor from SKIMS, on the condition of anonymity, told Excelsior that the masks are not to be used by everyone and if we are going to exhaust our resources like this then we will not be having anything to deal if the situation worsens.
“It is not safe, there has to some regulations that will regulate the making of masks and makes sure that these masks are up to the standard,” he said.
Meanwhile, Deputy Commissioner, Srinagar Shahid Iqbal Choudhary told Excelsior that the issue has been taken care of and the Head of the Department of Social and Preventive Medicines (SPM), GMC, Srinagar has been appointed as the Nodal Officer for certifying the quality and standards of protective gears.
“The Nodal officer will do that and anybody else giving the certification will not be entertained,” he said.
Dr Parvaiz Koul, Head, Department of Medicine, SKIMS said that for routine use, it (masks) may be ok. “But for healthcare professionals may not be efficacious and may give only a false sense of well-being,” he said.
He also said that materials, etc have to be taken into account which determines the filtration ability of the mask. “If the pores are not adequately limiting the passage of microbes across the mask, it could result in a distinct sense of well-being while it may eventually be more harmful because the person would suddenly be more casual in his demean or vis-à-vis infection control practices,” he said.
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