Which Disinfectant Is Effective for COVID-19?

With the spread of covid-19, cleaning and disinfection products are being widely used. The Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that we should regularly clean touched surfaces and our hands frequently – both of which are standard practices to help slow the spread of viruses and bacteria. Disinfectants are a must for the cleaning work. A good disinfectant should quickly kill the virus within the acceptable concentration range of harm to the human body and environment. So, how do we choose disinfectants? What should we pay attention to when choosing disinfectants?

The titer of the virus directly determines the infectivity of the virus, and also determines the difficulty of virus inactivation. The higher the concentration, the easier the infection and the harder the inactivation. The ranking of COVID-19’s stability on different environmental surfaces is: plastic > stainless steel > cardboard > copper surface.

On plastic surfaces, infectious COVID-19 can last for 72 hours. On stainless steel surface, it can exist for 48 hours. But the titer of infectious virus decreased significantly. On the cardboard, no infectious COVID-19 could be detected after 24 hours. And on the surface of copper, no infectious COVID-19 could be detected in 4 hours. 

So how efficient is COVID-19 moving from the contaminated surface to our hands? Studies on the influenza A virus show that 31.6% of the viral load will be transferred to our hands as long as it contacts the contaminated surface for 5 seconds.

Masks are important to prevent droplets from splashing into the oropharynx and nose, but they are not omnipotent. If you can wash your hands and disinfect the environment, you can prevent most of the contact transmission. So, how should disinfection be operated? There are all kinds of disinfectants on the market, most of which are labeled “can kill 99.9% of the bacteria”. Are these disinfectant products useful for the new crown virus? What are the precautions for using disinfection products?

Generally speaking, there are two kinds of disinfectants. One is for the human body and the other is for the environment. Portable disinfectant sprayers are devices that are used for environmental disinfection. The portable disinfectant sprayer can be quickly sterilized effectively. When selecting disinfectant sprayers, try to order from reliable manufacturers, such as Meridasprayer, victory, etc.

Why do we need to neutralize the activity and cytotoxicity of disinfectants quickly and effectively?

1) To accurately control the time of virus and disinfectant contact. No matter what method, the inactivation of the virus takes time. This time can be very short, less than 30 seconds; It can be a long time. It will take a few days. A good disinfectant should quickly kill the virus within the acceptable concentration range of harm to the human body and environment. Usually, we only choose disinfectants with an exposure time ≤ 1 minute.

2) Quantifying the titer of an infectious virus depends on its ability to kill host cells. Virus quantification is to mix virus with host cells, observe the cytopathic effect of the virus on cells after a certain period, and calculate the amount of virus that can infect cells. The cytopathic effect refers to the structural changes in host cells caused by virus invasion. There are many different manifestations. The common one is that the infected cells become round, and the extreme one is that the cells are killed by the virus.

To sum up, two things should be paid attention to when selecting disinfectants. One is the ingredients. The ingredients are easy to understand. Different chemicals have different inactivation effects on the virus. Another is “contact time” which is often ignored. The so-called “required contact time” refers to the time the virus needs to contact with these disinfectants when its infective titer can be effectively reduced. Make sure to check these two things when choosing disinfectants!