AS the government persists with large-scale public sanitisation exercises, infectious disease experts have taken to social media to express disagreement and highlight the lack of scientific basis. 

Universiti Malaya infectious disease physician Dr Adeeba Kamarulzaman said the funds are better spent on more pressing and targeted needs.

She also tweeted an article from the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which did not recommend the spraying of chemicals to disinfect community spaces. It also highlighted risks of irritation to the skin, eye and respiratory system.

“In most situations, cleaning surfaces (using soap or detergent) is enough to reduce SAR-CoV-2.

“Disinfection is recommended in INDOOR community settings where there has been a suspected/confirmed case within the last 24h; when the presence of infectious virus is more likely,” she tweeted.

Instead of disinfecting public spaces, funds could be better channelled to other resources, such as personal protective equipment, ventilators and food for volunteers, she added.

Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, Adeeba, who was recently appointed a member of the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) science council, has regularly tweeted her views on the lack of scientific support for large-scale disinfection of public spaces.

This drew the ire of Fire and Rescue Department director-general Mohammad Hamdan Wahid, who two days ago denied it was a waste of money and asked Adeeba to meet him over the matter.

Hamdan said 25,000 public disinfection exercises have been done since March last year.

The Housing and Local Government Ministry had again announced large-scale sanitisation of public areas a few days ago, ahead of the nationwide lockdown that kicked off today.

Besides Adeeba, other medical experts who disapprove of the method include former deputy director-general of health Dr Lokman Hakim Sulaiman, who said it was wrong of the Fire Department to claim that public sanitisation was supported by the WHO and CDC.

Instead, CDC had specifically stated it was unnecessary and ineffective to spray cleaning products or disinfectants on sidewalks, roads or ground cover, Lokman said in a Facebook post, where he attached a CDC advisory on the matter.

“This is completely contrary to the housing and local government ministry’s standard operating procedure (on disinfection). Which CDC guideline is the fire department director-general talking about?

“We question the move to sanitise public areas as it is wasteful and is not supported by science about how Covid-19 spreads,” Lokman said.

In the early days of the pandemic last year, Lokman had been among the first to criticise mass disinfection exercises as a waste of public funds and one that put people at risk.

Another former deputy director-general of health, Dr Christopher Lee, tweeted his agreement for Adeeba’s views.

“The spraying of disinfectants on floors, streets, walls in public spaces will have little impact on this pandemic.

“Focus on high-touch surfaces and to be effective should be done regularly, not just a ‘one-off’. Let’s focus on high-impact measures,” the current Malaysian AIDS council president tweeted.

Health think-tank the Galen Centre for Health and Social Policy meanwhile told Free Malaysia Today that sanitisation of buildings and public areas was wasteful and that it was better focus on preventing transmission through the air via aerosols. 

Much of the focus on how Covid-19 spread last year was on surfaces.

In line with the growing criticism of spraying disinfectant on roads and public areas comes new findings among scientists that improving ventilation, especially for enclosed and indoor spaces, is a better way to curb the spread of Covid-19, as the virus is transmitted to droplets and aerosols from infection people that can linger in the air.

Adeeba, who has also been tweeting about this, said the Health Ministry needed to make a clear public stand on the importance of ventilation and the virus’ spread through the air via droplets and aerosols. – June 1, 2021.