Research work on topical anti-viral herbal disinfectants and sanitizers begins

Rawalpindi: Pir Mehr Ali Shah Arid Agriculture University Rawalpindi (PMAS-AAUR) has started research work to combat the COVID-19 pandemic through low cost and effective measures. Two major research works have been initiated in this regard. First, production of high quality herbal topical disinfectants extracted from native plants of Pakistan; these plant based natural compounds will be safer and cheaper as compared to expensive chemicals based disinfectants available in the market. Second, the university has sent a project to HEC for evaluation of Electrolyzed Water as sanitizer against COVID-19. The Electrolyzed Water will be evaluated against a poultry virus, which belongs to the same family of viruses with similar symptoms as in humans. The successful evaluation will provide a safe and low cost sanitizer / disinfectant for use at public places, especially hospitals and educational institutions. PMAS Arid Agriculture University has also a unique honour that its research team headed by Dr. Tayyaba Zainab (Assistant Professor) has submitted the Whole Genome Sequence of COVID-19 at GenBank, NCBI and Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data (GISAID).

This work has been cited by nextstrain.org/ncov, which at present have only two whole genomes of viruses submitted from Pakistan. PMAS-AAUR Vice Chancellor Prof. Dr Qamar Zaman appreciated the efforts of faculty members and employees of the University. He said that University is performing its responsibility and stood with the nation in this crucial time.

Vice Chancellor also said that students are being provided with online teaching courses and had started online classes to ensure students did not face academic loss.He also informed that University Medical Center is also active in providing corona virus protection and information not only in faculty members but also employees and students. The Vice Chancellor urged the University students and staff to adopt precautionary measures to avoid an epidemic. Vice chancellor also said that online LMS was developed in a very short period of time by the struggle of Data Center employees. University IT department also helped the faculty and students to use latest technologies for online education.

Both IT department and data Center collectively did their best efforts to facilitate the students and faculties, he added. He further said, to provide simple user manuals, UAAR LMS is such a robust system which will be user friendly and with time more features will be added. Faculty also uses simple online software like Google class room, Zoom, YouTube Channels which are being used throughout the world for online teaching. Faculty and students are happy to use online system faculty said that they are not only carry on teaching but also learning E-learning tools which increase their knowledge few students complaint that they don’t have internet facility for such students university administration take decision to provide lectures to these students through cds.