In the current severe situation of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, effective health measures are essential to prevent the spread of the virus. People from all over the world have snapped up various masks, disinfectant, alcohol ... However, the variety of "sterilizing hand sanitizers" and "sanitizing hand sanitizers" on the market are not necessarily effective for the new crown virus.

Earlier, there were reports that although most of the products on the e-commerce platform related to sterilization and hand sanitizer sales rose rapidly, many of the best-selling models could not kill the new crown virus.

Among them, hand sanitizers based on plant extracts cannot kill New Crown Virus. The main chlorhexidine disinfectant is not effective against the virus. Although the benzalkonium chloride component can kill the virus, the effect on New Crown Virus is unknown.

Therefore, it is necessary to evaluate current infection control strategies for the COVID-19 virus. The sixth edition of the trial version of the diagnosis and treatment plan issued by the National Health and Health Commission clearly mentioned that lipid solvents such as ether, 75% ethanol, chlorine-containing disinfectants, peracetic acid, and chloroform can effectively inactivate the virus.

Recently, researchers in a previous paper published on biorxiv.org did it by themselves. For the first time, they confirmed that the disinfectant recommended by WHO can inactivate the new crown virus and identified strategies for using disinfectants to ensure hand hygiene. Effectiveness.

World The World Health Organization's Guidelines for Hand Hygiene in Health Care recommends two alcohol-based hand sanitizers to reduce pathogen infection and transmission.

These recommendations are based on fast-acting and broad-spectrum bactericidal activity, as well as easy availability and safety.

Previous research has shown that WHO's Formulation I and Formulation II disinfectants can inactivate closely related SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV6.

So far, recommendations for inactivating SARS-CoV-2 have been derived only from the results of studies on other coronaviruses.

To evaluate whether alcohol-based disinfectants can also effectively inactivate SARS-CoV-2, the researchers tested the antiviral activities of WHO formulations I and II at different concentrations, as well as alcohols ethanol and 2-propanol.

Figure 1: 

WHO Formulation I is based on 85% ethanol and is highly effective at inactivating viruses with reducing factors (RFs) of £ 5.9 and concentrations between 40%-80%.

Regression analysis showed comparisons with SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV, and bovine CoV (BCoV), which is often used as a surrogate for highly pathogenic human CoV (Figure 1A).

Based on 75% isopropanol, WHO Formulation II exhibits better antiviral effects at low concentrations, complete virus inactivation, and RFs of £ 5 at a minimum concentration of 30% (Figure 1B).

Regression analysis showed that SARS-CoV-2 inactivation profiles were between SARS-CoV, BCoV, and MERS-CoV (Figure 1B).

Next, the researchers discussed the susceptibility of SARS-CoV-2 to individual ingredients of WHO-recommended formulations, which are also the main ingredients for hand disinfection available on the market.

These two alcohols, ethanol (Figure 2A) and 2-propanol (Figure 2B), all reduced the virus titer to background levels within 30 seconds, and RFs were between 4.8 and 5.9 after 30 seconds.

The results show that both WHO formulations can effectively inactivate SARS-CoV-2.

It is worth noting that both ethanol and 2-propanol can effectively inactivate the virus within 30 seconds with a minimum final concentration of at least 30%.

Alcohol is the basis for hand disinfection, which is often used in many health care facilities. Therefore, the results of this study are essential to minimize virus transmission and minimize virus inactivation in the context of current outbreaks.