Pharmacy Students responsibility towards nation

The time was 4:00 pm. A group of students wearing white aprons were cleaning the lab equipment and waiting for another team.  The team that is bringing some of the required chemicals from Dhaka.  This was the image of the lab of Comilla University Pharmacy Department on March 16, 2020.  The government has already declared all educational institutions in the country closed as a precautionary measure in the terror of the Novel Corona virus.

These students have been working hard not to fold their hands when the price of masks, hand sanitizer has gone beyond purchasing power due to dishonest businessmen.  No, they were not forced to do so under any pressure.  They are moving forward in this work from the responsibility of the country and society.  A joy in the eyes of everyone, with a great purpose in mind.  They want to make hand sanitizer available to everyone at low cost.

After the first Covid-19 infection in China last December, the virus gradually spread worldwide.  In fact, it has made the world totally inert.  More than one lakh seventy thousand people in 152 countries have been infected with the virus.  More than seven thousand people have died.  Bangladesh has also started its transmission.  Meanwhile, the price of masks, hand sanitizers has increased four to five times.

On March 15, our professors suggested that since we work with chemicals in the lab regularly, we can make hand sanitizers for people.  Everyone gladly accepted the proposal and immediately informed each batch of our pharmacy department for fundraising.  On the same day, we took the initiative to make 300 bottle hand sanitizer, funded by students, teachers and Comilla University Pharmacy Society (CUPS).

We worked from 8.00 pm to 1.30 am and finished the work according to the World Health Organization (WHO) formula.  The teachers always supervised our work.  But the encouragement we receive from everyone in distributing them seems to be the best we have ever had as a pharmacist.

The following day, with the help of the Honorable Vice-Chancellor of Comilla University, Imran Kabir Chowdhury, we prepared 1000 more bottles of hand sanitizer.  They were distributed on the morning of March 17, the hundredth birth anniversary of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.  Several television channels broadcast our work live.  Various newspapers also published reports.

A good initiative and some people's night-time work;  Could not imagine so much response.  Many of our friends who left home also came back to work.  We had many wishes to move the work forward.  But for financial reasons we cannot take it anymore.  Our initiative may have been very small compared to the situation in the forefront. However, we have tried our best to keep people safe in the time of danger.  Everyone will try to adhere to hygiene.  Be careful, stay safe.

Writer:

Md Jahid Hassan

Student, Department of Pharmacy

Comilla University, Bangladesh.