‘Sterile’ check swab sticks, made in Ulhasnagar slum

Every morning for the final 4 days, 9-year-old Naitik Sharma has woken up, had poha for breakfast, and sat by his doorstep for hours to do only one process – insert two earbud-like lengthy sticks in a plastic packet. For 1,000 packets, he earns Rs 20.
These plastic sticks, one thicker than the opposite, with cotton buds at every finish, are swab sticks used to gather nasal and throat samples for RT-PCR checks.
Under Medical Devices Rules, 2017 (Form MD-5), which offers with low to reasonable threat gadgets, the sticks require a sterile surroundings for manufacturing. Sharma locations the sticks on the ground and makes use of his naked palms to pack them.
Dozens of slum households at Sant Gyaneshwar Nagar in Ulhasnagar, 50 km east of Mumbai, have been packing RT-PCR nasopharyngeal kits since final week by a neighborhood provider, Maneesh Keswani.

On Wednesday, the native police and the Ulhasnagar Municipal Corporation (UMC) seized leftover swab stick inventory from not less than 5 households. Keswani has been booked beneath Indian Penal code and Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897.
The packed kits have ‘Bio-Swab’ written on them. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is now making an attempt to establish the producer and test if he’s registered with it. “No company by the name Bio-Swab is registered with the FDA. Thane region has only one manufacturer who has no link to this case. This could be a case of spurious manufacturing,” stated Pravin Mundada, Joint Commissioner (Drugs).
He added that they’re ready for Keswani’s assertion to be recorded to assemble extra info.
A swab is what goes into the throat and nostril of an individual to gather samples for Covid-19 checks. It is then carried in a viral transport media to a laboratory and examined for the presence of Sars-CoV-2 virus.
UMC Additional Municipal Commissioner Karuna Juikar, who visited the slum on Wednesday, stated: “These kits are not being used in Ulhasnagar corporation hospitals. We have instructed private hospitals, chemists and doctors to not procure any kit with the name Bio-Swab on it.”
Deputy Commissioner Madan Sonde stated the company is making an attempt to determine who equipped these kits.
Naitik Sharma stated that final week, he noticed his mates pack the swab sticks together with their moms. “I also got a box full of it.”
His mom, requesting anonymity, stated she packed 1,000 such packets however is but to obtain fee. Her husband Ajay Sharma, who works in a furnishings store, is out of a job since lockdown-like curbs had been imposed not too long ago throughout the state. “We thought we will do some work sitting at home,” she stated.
About 5,000 swab sticks have been distributed to every family, and not less than a dozen households within the slum have been employed to pack them, a municipal official stated.
Meenakshi Wadvirao, who lives close to the Sharmas, stated 4 members in her household would sit continuous from midday until 7 pm and pack 5,000 kits a day. “We earned Rs 100. That is enough to buy vegetables.”
Wadivrao stated she bought the uncooked supplies from Keswani, who owns a godown close by. “He gave us a few instructions – don’t touch the cotton end, hold the stick from between, keep a chataai (mat) under the swabs, put two sticks in one plastic packing and don’t let dust enter the packet,” she added.
The slum residents stated they packed the sticks with their naked palms. Nitika Rajbhar (14), who sat by an open nullah and helped her mom pack the swabs, stated she stored them on a plate.
Bharati Chauhan, a neighborhood resident, stated the slum dwellers had been paid final yr for a number of weeks to do the identical job. “Last year, women did this inside their houses. This year, children started packing too, sitting on the verandah or on the street.”

On Tuesday evening, Keswani took away all of the uncooked materials from the slum dwellers. “He took all the stock, emptied his godown and shut it down,” stated Surendra Yadav, who first shared the video of this exercise on social media.
Senior Inspector Rajendra Kadam of Ulhasnagar police station stated Keswani will likely be summoned for questioning.
When The Indian Express contacted Keswani, he stated, “I don’t know anything about RT-PCR test kits.”

“If a person touches the swab with bare dirty hands or is himself infected with Covid-19 or some other infection, the swab can infect the person who takes it in his mouth. We know that the virus can last on surfaces for a few days,” stated Dr Anupa Dixit, chief scientist at Suburban Diagnostics.
Dixit added because the numbers of RT-PCR checks maintain rising, smaller hospitals and labs could also be pressured to go for no matter provide they get.