Bandages: Exports of Jayer and Company suspended

Raha: Steadfast denialWith the case of Cynthia Zafer of Melbourne, Australia, the theory that often treatment can be more deadly than the disease, gained strength. Zafer's wounded finger turned gangrenous because of some infected gauze that had been used to dress it. The dressing, marked sterilised, has since been identified as part of the export consignment received from Calcutta-based Jayer and Company, India's largest exporter of surgical dressings.The Australian Government claims that the bandages were contaminated with bacteria of dangerous infections like gangrene, tetanus and botulism. All bandages exported by Jayer, already in stock at hospitals, were ordered burnt and all surgical dressings from India have been banned. Around the same time, Singapore also determined that bandages sent by the company were infected and has rejected all fresh imports.The management of Jayer, which exports to 47 countries including ones in Western Europe and Canada and earns Rs 2.5 crore annually, is not willing to take the allegations lying down. The standard dressings blackballed by the Australian health authorities are in sizes 13, 14 and 15. These apparently are too large to be used for finger wounds. Says Rabin Raha, the firm's senior partner: "The dressing concerned must have been either sizes seven, eight or nine which we do not export."Support: Raha is supported by reports from Australia. In a Melbourne datelined report in The Courier Mail Peter Zafer, husband of the affected woman, is quoted saying that though his wife had applied an Indian bandage it was different in size to the three identified bandages. Other press reports from Australia also support Jayer. Commissioner for Public Health Dr J.C. McNulty says: "There have been no reports of illness caused by the (Jayer) dressings." Eager to strengthen their case, Jayer sent samples of their dressing to the Manchester Chamber of Commerce's testing house and laboratory, which replied: "The dressings received complied with the codex for sterility."Along with Indian dressings, those from Thailand, Taiwan and South Korea have also been banned in Australia. This has raised suspicions that health authorities there have been persuaded by local manufacturers like Smith & Nephew and Johnson & Johnson. Jayer started exporting to Australia four years ago with only one customer, Breninston Limited of Victoria. The business gradually expanded with two other companies, Trafalgar Trading (Sydney) and Amada Private Limited (New-South Wales). Showing the carefully filed telex messages from these firms demonstrating a growing demand for Jayer products, Raha said: "Our products are much cheaper than those manufactured by the Australians and our expanding market could naturally have made them panicky."Explanation: The Singapore incident is also explained away, plausibly. The Singapore agent for the company, Ramparts Surgical Company, was apparently not aware that Jayer had sent unsterilised bandages which had to be treated at their end. The Singapore authorities naturally found the consignment infected but the matter was sorted out once Jayer was asked for an explanation. This happened, according to the export firm's executives, in August. In mid-September, the Singapore Health Ministry declared 600 dozen bandage rolls clinically impure, as they contained gangrene and tetanus causing bacteria. Raha asserts that he has been advised by his Australian counterparts to seek help on a political level from the Indian Government. A Jayer representative says that he was asked by the Australian High Commission in Delhi whether he suspected any "foul play". The theory of commercial skulduggery being propagated by Jayer might have gained credence had inspections in India gone off well. On a Union Health Ministry directive the West Bengal drug control authorities inspected the premises of the manufacturing unit that supplied the dressing to the export firm. The samples taken from the unit, Surjit and Company were infected.It is bad enough that the faultiness of the bandages was discovered by the foreign governments, but the Union Health Ministry took up the matter nearly two months later. Instead of taking drastic steps immediately as the Australian Government had done, they reacted in a typically bureaucratic manner and instructed state drug control authorities to enforce sterilisation procedures and prosecute defaulters. Exports of Jayer and Company have been suspended, thereby saving foreign users. Steps have yet to be taken to protect Indian patients from the many companies that manufacture surgical dressings without any strict quality control.Published By: AtMigration Published On: Oct 22, 2013 16:28 IST--- ENDS ---

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Bandages: Exports of Jayer and Company suspended

With the case of Cynthia Zafer of Melbourne, Australia, the theory that often treatment can be more deadly than the disease, gained strength.

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