Sanitizers and COVID-19

When using Covid-19 / Hand Sanitizer, keep this 60:20 formula in mind

· Before the epidemic, only five percent of people washed their hands properly

The World Health Organization (WHO) has placed special emphasis on maintaining a distance of one meter from each other and hand hygiene to prevent covid-19. Hygiene and physical distance are said to be the main weapons in fighting corona. For this, it is recommended to wash your hands frequently with soap and water and use a sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol. Organizations such as the WHO are putting special emphasis on hand hygiene during this time of epidemic. In fact, your parents tell you to wash your hands before eating. It is our old custom to keep our hands clean and sterile. But in today's hectic lifestyle, we do not pay as much attention to hand hygiene as we should. Let us know how hand sanitizer is useful to fight corona, what its proper dosage is and what to take care of while using it.

This is how a hand sanitizer works

Alcohol has the ability to destroy proteins and microorganisms (e.g. Kovid-19 virus) and disrupt their internal systems. Alcohol based sanitizers should contain at least 60% alcohol. Most alcohol-based hand sanitizers contain a combination of ethanol, isopropyl alcohol, N-propanol, or any two of these products. A small amount of glycerine is added to it to prevent skin damage.

Do this when using an alcohol based sanitizer

Sanitizers should contain at least 60% alcohol. Hand sanitizer will not work on bad or smooth hands. In such cases, wash your hands with soap and water.

WHO states 2 formulas for sanitizer

According to the WHO, sanitizers can have two formulas. First: It should contain up to 80% ethanol, 0.125% hydrogen peroxide and 1.45% glycerol. According to the second formula, it may contain 75% isopropyl alcohol instead of ethanol. The remaining components will be the same as in the first formula.

According to the US Centres for Disease Control:

Proper hand hygiene reduces the risk of respiratory infections by up to 21 percent.

What is the right technique to clean hands with a sanitizer?

1. At least take 3 ml of hand sanitizer on palm

2. Rub well on hands for 20-30 seconds

3. Includes the upper part of the wrist up to 2 cm

4. Leave hands to dry

How to increase the lifespan just by keeping the hands clean

If the hands are clean then the risk of respiratory disease will decrease by 21 %.

Correct cleaning will reduce the risk of diarrhea-associated infection by 50%

Reference

Dr. Vinod Ravindran(Consultant, Rheumatologist Centre for Rheumatology Calicut, Kerela)