Selflessness in a pandemic. From what we’ve seen over the last few months this may seem paradoxical, yet the best of human of nature seems to shine in times of hardship.

Words Lucy Dinn Image Taylah Cutting

Over the last few weeks, researchers at the University of Wollongong’s Molecular Horizons facility have volunteered their time and the university’s resources to create hand sanitiser for Wollongong Hospital. Molecular Horizons Director Professor Antoine van Oijen says his team was approached in early April by Wollongong Hospital pharmacists who were running out of hand sanitiser quickly, due to shortages from their commercial supplier.

“I asked around to see in the chemistry and biology labs how many chemicals we had lying around that we could use according to the World Health Organisation’s formulation, so we decided we could make quite a bit for them,” Professor Antoine van Oijen says.

Yet Wollongong Hospital isn’t the only health facility short of critical medical supplies. The World Health Organisation has recently stated there is a global shortage of personal protective equipment, which puts health workers at risk worldwide. “This is an example of things that we normally take for granted, we don’t have access to anymore,” Antoine says.

Since mid-April the researchers have donated 40 litres of medical-grade hand sanitiser with 80 litres still to be given, protecting health workers across all hospital wards.

Antoine says it’s important for all of us to support our healthcare workers as much as we can throughout this pandemic. “The people working in the hospital, the frontline health care workers, they’re the heroes. They really need to have all the protection and support they can get”.