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More than a million units of a brand of hand sanitizer that is no longer licensed for use in Ireland were distributed to health service centers across the state.
ViraPro brand hand sanitizer was found to contain methanol instead of ethanol and the Department of Agriculture has advised the public to stop using it and the company’s other products.
Inadequate levels of ethanol make the product ineffective, and frequent use of a methanol sanitizer can cause nausea, dermatitis, eye irritation, upper respiratory tract irritation and headaches, he said.
Several schools were forced to close on Friday as a result of the recall, as the product had been shipped to schools across the state for students and staff to use.
The Health Services Executive (HSE) confirmed on Saturday that it had received more than three million units of ViraPro disinfectant for use in healthcare settings. Two million of these were in storage and more than a million have been “shipped to healthcare locations,” he said.
An HSE spokeswoman said a recall team had been mobilized and had “immediately quarantined all stock currently in the National PPE Distribution Centers.”
The recall would help to understand and establish “how much product needs to be lifted and replaced,” he said.
He said there was “ample stock available” in HSE storage to replace the recalled disinfectant.
issue
Agriculture Minister Charlie McConalogue said a potential problem with the disinfectant was raised for the first time on September 25. He said that the Treasury notified the department that the European Anti-Fraud Office had contacted him about the importation of a hand sanitizer from Turkey to Ireland from the same supplier of a product tested in Denmark and found to contain levels excessive methanol.
He said the results of the tests the department conducted were fully validated on Oct. 16.
The Department of Education has acknowledged that it was first alerted to safety issues with hand sanitizer on Tuesday. However, schools were not told to stop using it until Thursday night.
The Department of Agriculture said that, in the course of the hand sanitizer investigation, it emerged that several other ViraPro brand medical devices were not on its approved list of biocides.
“The company in question has been advised to withdraw all these products from the market,” it said in a statement. “The public is encouraged to stop using these products because they are not authorized for use.”
State Minister Colm Brophy said on RTÉ Saturday with Katie Hannon that ministers should have been briefed on the matter earlier.
When asked if he was surprised by the delay, given that the product was being used by children and millions had been spent on it, Brophy said the government was dealing with an unprecedented pandemic and that there was “so much happening at that speed. “.
He said it would have been better if the problem had been reported earlier, but that the Department of Education acted “as quickly as it could” after being notified.
‘Chaos’
Sinn Féin health spokesperson David Cullinane said it was concerning that a product used to protect people was not safe and that the delay in informing the minister was “unacceptable and speaks to the chaos we have here at the time. “.
The HSE spokeswoman said she “acted immediately” to address the matter when the department informed her Thursday that the ViraPro products had been removed from the Biocidal Products Register.
He added that the department also warned late on Friday of the need to withdraw “all products bearing the ‘ViraPro’ name and return them to the supplier.”
Dr Paddy Mallon, infectious disease consultant at St Vincent Hospital in Dublin, said the incident was “shocking”.
“Whether it’s schools or hospitals, everyone has been struggling to access enough supplies of what we need, but that has improved over time,” he added.
“We need to recognize that we need to focus on safety, but also on the importance of sanitizer and hand washing.
“It is an unfortunate inconvenience that has had a severe impact on schools … Most hand sanitizers do not have this particular type of alcohol.” – Additional reports – PA
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