Africans improvise sanitisers, masks to plug shortages

* Cape Town distiller finds use for alcohol waste
* Rwandan tailor sews multicoloured masks
* Authorities raise questions about effectiveness
* Fears virus could overrun struggling services

By Wendell Roelf
CAPE TOWN, March 24 (Reuters) - When panic over the
coronavirus spurred a run on hand sanitiser in Cape Town, gin
maker Andre Pienaar realised there was something he could do
with all the waste alcohol his small distillery produces.
He had 140 litres of the 70 percent ethanol waste - called
"gin heads" in the trade - just sitting around, so he posted on
social media that anyone who needed some could have it for free
to turn into the hand wash at home.
"The response was crazy. It was finished in three hours and
there was a limit of one litre per person," he told Reuters. He
has now started selling the ethanol his Pienaar and Son
Distilling Company is still producing.
"There is nothing on the shelves for people other than soap
at the moment. It is just another option to help protect
people," he said.
Across Africa, dwindling supplies of sanitiser and surgical
masks could prove a boon for entrepreneurs seeking to plug
shortages. Amateur chemists in Nigeria and Kenya are mixing up
hand wash, while enterprising tailors in Rwanda are sewing their
own masks.
Health officials warn that wearing masks in public won't
protect you from the virus, and say sanitiser only works if it's
more than 60 percent alcohol - and even then soap and water are
better.
But those warnings have not stopped customers flocking to
Alexander Nshimiyimana, a tailor based in Kigali's main market.
He is using kitenge, a kaleidoscopic local fabric, to make masks
that are not only cheaper but much prettier than the standard
hospital-style ones.
"It is a kind of opportunity to some people to make money.
It is also (an) opportunity to innovate," Nshimiyimana said.
The continent of 1.3 billion has recorded only around 1,100
cases in 43 countries, with 39 deaths, a fraction of the more
than 305,000 people infected and more than 13,000 deaths
worldwide. But there are concerns that Africa's creaky health
infrastructure could be overrun as the virus spreads.
"A mask will not protect you from the infection, it will
protect others if you wear it from getting infected should you
have symptoms. So in this respect also a piece of cloth works,"
James Ayodele, spokesman of the Centre for Disease Control (CDC)
Africa office.
Ayodele said that the CDC also advised against making
sanitiser at home because it contains alcohol at a potentially
dangerous high concentration.
But Moji Kusanu, a chef in Nigeria's commercial hub of
Lagos, decided to respond to an obvious shortage - after prices
shot up to 1,700 naira ($5.55) for a 200ml bottle, from 200
naira before.
She customised an online sanitiser recipe, which recommended
mixing alcohol with aloe vera gel, by adding glycerine for extra
moisturising effect.
"Sometimes, when you are out you cannot wash your hands.
sanitisers can ... make a difference," she said
($1 = 306.4000 naira)