Know your hand sanitisers
Published: 09 Mar 2020
Washing your hands with soap and water is your best insurance against COVID-19 (Coronavirus Disease 2019). This means that other forms of disinfection, such as hand sanitisers, should be your secondary line of defence instead.
However, should you require hand sanitisers, here are some things to note!
Dr Jyoti Somani, from the NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine’s Department of Medicine and Senior Consultant with the NUH’s Division of Infectious Diseases, shares that if the ingredients of a particular hand sanitiser list water as the first component, it is likely to have less than 60% alcohol which is the minimum amount you would need to keep safe from COVID-19.
“This means that the alcohol concentration will be less than 60 per cent and they would not be effective against the SARS-Co-V-2 virus, the one that causes COVID-19.” – Dr Jyoti Somani
Dr Somani added that price is not an indication of a sanitiser’s efficacy. “Just because a product is more expensive does not mean it is better than the standard cleaning agents,” she said.
If in doubt, she suggested checking the National Environment Agency’s list of cleaners for the disinfection of the COVID-19 virus.
You can also look for ingredients such as benzalkonium chloride (0.05%), hydrogen peroxide isopropanol (50%), isopropanol (50%) and povidone-iodine (0.1% to 0.5%; 1% is for cleaning surfaces and not your hands), said Dr Somani.
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