Hyderabad: Duplicate hand sanitisers flood market amid corona spread

Hyderabad: With the outbreak of coronavirus, the unprecedented demand for hand sanitizer has given a chance to fraudsters to cash in on the opportunity and manufacture duplicate sanitizers.

According to police, they carried out raids at several places to seize the duplicate sanitizers and arrested its manufactures.

They said raids are still going on and cases are being booked against the perpetrators but still there are many more agents who are involved in the manufacturing of duplicate hand sanitizers.

"As soon as we receive information about such illegal activity taking place, we immediately raid the place and seize the items and arrest the accused," said DCP Task Force P. Radhakishan Rao.

He added, "Since the lockdown there are many raids conducted in the city and so far we seized more than 1 lakh duplicate hand sanitizers and arrested the culprits."

Vijay Kumar, a pulmonologist at OGH said, "Hand sanitizer is a temporary relief in case if soap or water is not available. Also a person shall ensure that hand sanitizers contain at least 60 percent of alcohol.

The hand sanitizers are mostly used because they give the feel fresh attitude, but it won't kill the bacteria effectively unlike soaps and hand wash liquids."

"Now the trickiest part is, if the hand sanitizer is being manufactured without alcohol then it won't work at all, apart from that the duplicate sanitizer will irate the skin even more compared to the alcohol based sanitizers. So it's suggested to avoid duplicate hand sanitizers," explained the doctor.

A report from U.S Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reveals that, people are using hand sanitizer on a daily basis, sometimes multiple times a day, so the FDA has decided that the companies making hand sanitizers need to provide proof that those chemicals are safe for that level of exposure, especially for pregnant women and children. Three active ingredients—benzalkonium chloride, ethyl alcohol, and isopropyl alcohol—are still under review.

Additionally, there are concerns that using antibacterial hand sanitizers and soaps – like those that include bacteria-killing chemicals like triclosan – can contribute to antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

The report also suggests that quickly smearing an ethanol-based hand sanitizer onto your hands won't kill cold and flu bugs. This is because your fingers are still wet with mucus.