BD scientist brings good news for acid victims

A Bangladeshi scientist now living in New Zealand has brought good news for the people with severe wound and similar physical injury from acid attack and fire incident.
Dr Azam Ali, an agro-scientist, has invented a bio-based wound dressing, which cures severe wound 40 percent faster than any other conventional medicine currently available on the market.
A leading pharmaceutical company from Bangladesh has already contacted the scientist to introduce the new product on the local market.
The breakthrough innovation of the Bangladeshi scientist won the globally reputed Bayer Innovation of the Year Award in 2010.
Ali has invented bio-based materials to create new wound dressing, bone-graft implant products and medical suture technology using wool from New Zealand sheep. He uses low-volume protein sources from the wool to wound dressing and medical devices.
Two of his wound-care medical products are now being used at New Zealand hospitals and are approved for use in Australia, United States and the European Union.
"Bangladesh can get benefit out of the invention," Ali said in an interview with BSS last week when he came to Dhaka for a personal visit.
He said the new wound dressing dramatically brings down the treatment time while the result is far better than any other existing treatment process as the bio-based wound dressing accelerates wound healing process and tissue growth.
"It works 40 percent faster than any other traditional products in wound treatment", Ali said.
The scientist sees very bright prospect of using the new product in Bangladesh because of availability of natural raw materials.
He pointed out that Bangladesh can use shrimp shell in place of wool to produce the same products with similar quality and effectiveness.
'There is lot of shrimp shells available at the industry where shrimp are being processed regularly for either export or domestic use," he said.
Ali said he is now in talks with a local pharmaceutical company to introduce the products in Bangladesh.
"We are expecting a positive result from the on-going discussions and hoping to introduce the products in a year," he said,
He believes the new products will serve better in treating the acid victims and the people with severe burn injury.
He, however, said the treatment would be costlier than the existing synthetic products, but it would heal the wounds of the acid and burn victims to the extent so they can get back to normal life.
A post graduate in chemistry from Jahangirnagar University, Ali did higher study in his subject in the United State before joining in research work first in Korea and then in New Zealand.
Currently, he is a senior scientist at the AgResearch, a leading research organisation in New Zealand.