Not all hand sanitizers work against Coronavirus —  Here’s the reason why and what you should do!

Since the beginning of this pandemic, and COVID-19 outbreak have started, many people have panicked and already bought their essential needs for the whole month or a week just to avoid getting the virus by often going outside. Some people have also done hoarding of alcohols, face masks, wet wipes, gloves, and hand sanitizers, that's the reason why we have had a lack of those safety essentials. It has become in demand and the most important thing these past few months. The sales of alcohols and hand sanitizers have soared really high that pharmacies, drugstores, and even supermarkets have started limiting the number of products that people can buy at a time. 

Manufacturers and industry have decided that they will start producing hand sanitizers to meet the customer’s demand and avoid lack of resources. Though it is not proven that hand sanitizers can help reduce the risk of getting certain infections and not all hand sanitisers are equally effective against coronavirus.

The novel coronavirus can mainly spread when droplets from a person's mouth or nose who’s having the virus are transferred to other people. However, there’s a recent study that says it can also spread through faeces. Aside from someone inhaling the droplets, one can also get respiratory viruses by just accidentally touching anything that’s already contaminated of the virus, then touching your face after, most particularly your mouth or nose. Most of the time, we touch our faces without even realizing it. 

Washing your hands with water and soap remains the top standard for proper hand hygiene and preventing the spread of infectious diseases. But these alcohol-based hand sanitizers are a practical alternative that can also protect us against microbes when soap and water aren’t available at the moment.

There are two main types of hand sanitizers available on the market, one is the alcohol-based and the other one is alcohol-free. Alcohol-based hand sanitizers contain varying amounts and types of alcohol, such as isopropyl or ethyl alcohol. Alcohol is widely known to kill most of the germs. Alcohol-free hand sanitizers contain something called quaternary ammonium compounds instead of alcohol. These can reduce microbes but are known to be less effective than alcohol.

It is said that a hand sanitizer needs to contain at least 60% alcohol in order to kill most viruses. Hand sanitizers containing less than 60% alcohol were found to be less effective at killing bacteria and fungi and may only reduce the growth of germs rather than killing them.

Studies have found that hand washing your hands is more effective than alcohols or any hand sanitizers at removing viruses. Washing hands for 20 seconds with warm water works best. If hands are dirty, hand washing with soap and water is more effective than using hand sanitisers even if it’s alcohol-based. 

The moment you sneeze or cough into your hands, your hands are contaminated with mucous already and it requires more than just a pump of hand sanitiser to disinfect them all. If you are using hand sanitiser then, just like when washing with soap and water, you need to make sure you cover your hands fully including between your wrists, palms, back of your hand, and your fingernails, rubbing it in for at least 20 seconds so it’s truly effective.

Now, I must say that the best way to prevent the spread of the coronavirus and reduce the risk of contracting with them will always be washing your hands with soap and water being the top, and avoid touching your face as much as possible. With shortages leading some people to try and make their own hand sanitizers, it’s also important to know these might not be as effective as commercially available products.

Kindly check our official website here and see the products that we’re offering at the moment. We also have Hand Sanitizer Gel with Alcohol that kills 99.99% of germs, travel-friendly size, and contains 70% Alcohol. 

Enjoy shopping, beauties!