Local nasal spray developed to fight Coronavirus to ‘hit market soon’

As the race is on to find a way to get rid of the deadly Coronavirus, Bangladesh has developed a nasal spray which ‘can kill’ the virus on contact, raising hope among many.

Bangladesh Reference Institute for Chemical Measurement (BRICM), set up by the government for the development of chemical metrology, has developed the spray named, ‘Bangasafe Oro-Nasal Spray’.

The BRICM clams that it can help people kill the virus as it is already known that the transmission points of the virus are mouth, nose and the eyes.

Talking to UNB, BRICM Director General Dr Mala Khan said, “Soon, we’re going to introduce a nasal spray having the capacity of killing coronavirus.”

“We got the approval from the Bangladesh Medical Research Council (BMRC) for its running clinical trial on March 24, and it’ll be completed soon,” she added.

Replying to a question when the nasal spray will be available in the market, Mala Khan said, “We want to make it available at the local market with every preparation and now we don’t want to disclose any further detail of it. But it can be said it’ll be available soon.”

Asked about its price, the BRICM DG said, “It’ll be kept within the buying capacity of general people, and the price will be fixed after reviewing the production cost as we don’t have any intention to make any profit. It’s being produced for the wellbeing of people.”

Replying to another question, she said: “We can produce it as per the demand of people.”

According to the BRICM, coronavirus exists in the nose, ear, mouth and throat, and the spray has the capacity to kill coronavirus in those areas. So, this spray use can help the Corona-infected people to recover from its infections soon.

Covid-19 situation in Bangladesh

After a slight fall for several days, Bangladesh’s daily coronavirus death toll crossed the 100-mark again on Sunday with a sharp fall in new cases.

The fatalities climbed to 11,053 with 101 deaths in the past 24 hours until the morning. The virus also infected 2,922 people, the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) said in a handout, reports UNB.

The daily infection rate rose to 13.33 per cent from Saturday’s 13.11 per cent while the mortality rate remained static at 1.48 per cent.

What experts say

Bangladesh is unlikely to see any improvement in the Covid-19 situation before June next as the country is still in the grip of its second wave, predicted by a group of local and international health experts.

Using a mathematical model, Bangladesh Como Modelling Group, a group of experts from both Bangladesh and Oxford University, also projected that the country will witness a similar infection rate intermittently till the end of May while the situation may improve in June.

However, some local experts think the virus is yet to reach its peak as it is spreading fast in newer areas alarmingly since many people had returned to their village homes from corona hotspots before the government enforced the lockdown.