Regulatory authorities’ preparedness to avert poor quality alcohol based hand sanitizers during COVID-19 pandemic in Ethiopia: A commentary

In early December 2019, an outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by a novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), emerged in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China.1 On January 30, 2020 the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.2 Since then, the WHO has identified formulations for the local preparation of alcohol-based hand rub formulations as gold standard, and the key tools being utilized to control the spread of the novel SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.3 In line with these, various governments around the world have promoted the use of ethyl alcohol or isopropyl alcohol-based hand rubs for hand hygiene. Moreover, a number of temporary guidelines and policies are being proclaimed among different countries of the world by waiving restrictions on the production of hand sanitizers which allow manufacturers, including alcohol beverage manufacturers, to produce alcohol based hand sanitizers in midst of COVID-19 pandemic.4 Thus under such circumstances, there will be a high chance of producing substandard and counterfeit alcohol based sanitizers by unscrupulous firms.