Does Your Hand Sanitizer Effectively Kill Coronavirus? 10 Things You Might Not Know About.

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coronavirus hand sanitizers

10 Things you didn’t know about hand santizers:

  1. Hand sanitizer is good, but it can’t beat soap and water. Washing your hands with soap and water should always be your first choice.
  2. If you’re not in a place where washing your hands is possible, hand sanitizer can be used instead.
  3. But, not all hand sanitizers work against coronavirus.
  4. There are two main types of hand sanitizers: alcohol-based and alcohol-free.
  5. Alcohol is effective at killing enveloped viruses, including the coronavirus. Your hand sanitizer needs to be at least 60% alcohol in order to viruses like coronavirus.
  6. Using hand sanitizer with alcohol more than 75% would dry your skin out very quickly.
  7. Using hand sanitizer way too frequently can cause irritation by drying out the skin and removing natural oils.
  8. The dry and damaged hand becomes a hotbed for disease viruses and increase the risk of viruses entering your body.
  9. So hand sanitizers, like most things, should be used in moderation – and only when handwashing is not an option.
  10. Soap is the most effective killer of COVID-19. Soap kills germs, binds them, and helps physically remove them, with the water, off your skin and down the drain leaving the skin clean, unlike hand sanitizers.
  11.  But, it is effective if you soap your hands for at least 20 seconds.
  12. Any simple soap does the work “As long as you give it a little bit of time, it will do its job.”


Sanitizer might feel like a modern-day, scientific, and more clinical upgrade to soap, but if you are already near a sink,
the best choice is to wash your hands with soap and hot water.

Read more on:
How to protect yourself from coronavirus?
Preventing Coronavirus: When & When Not To Wear A Face Mask

Keep yourself & others safe!

Reference:
https://www.businessinsider.com/things-to-know-about-hand-sanitizer-to-protect-against-coronavirus-2020-3?IR=T#5-does-hand-sanitizer-expire-5

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Dr Jisha Gomez

She is a highly skilled dermatology physician with strong expertise in improving skin & hair health through the development of corrective treatment combinations. She completed her Post-graduate Diploma in Dermatology from Cardiff, UK & Fellowship in Aesthetic Medicine (FAM) from the Institute of Laser and Aesthetic Medicine, Delhi with over 5+ years experience treating skin patients. She has worked in Government hospitals in Trivandrum and Bangalore. She is actively involved in creating awareness for healthy skin, breaking the social stigma based on skin colour & stopping steroid abuse in our country.