Today, the entire globe is struggling to deal with the greatest pandemic of the century, COVID-19. With no clinically approved treatments available, we are left with no options other than following the preventive measures issued by the World Health Organization (WHO). Among many others, hand washing with soap and water has been emphasized the most because it is cost-effective and easily accessible to the general public. Various studies have reported that soaps offer unique chemical properties that can disinfect the virus as a whole. However, there is still ambiguity in the general public about whether soaps can really shield us from this highly contagious disease. In an attempt to help eliminate the ambiguity, we analyzed the mechanisms underlying the efficacy of soap and its prospect for preventing the spread of COVID-19. In this paper, we provide an overview of the history and characteristics of SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19), the detailed mechanisms of the deactivation of viruses by soaps, and the potential effectiveness of soap in eliminating coronaviruses including SARS-CoV-2.
Please see this link(https://www.preprints.org/manuscript/202005.0060/v2) and give comments.
Would recommend other readers to access this link. I have just looked at the pdf and saved it.
Thank you, Dr Ajaya Bhattarai
Prevention is the best defense when vaccines or specific treatment are not in our hands. Lockdown could restrict but it's difficult for third world countries to maintain lockdown for a longer period. We need to protect ourselves. Not only the using of face masks, other healthy practices like regular hand washing with social distancing are important also.
I think washing your hands regularly with soap and water or use of alcohol based hand sanitizer has been the best solution till date when combined with other preventive measures including social distancing and wearing of mask. The lockdown is not the ultimate solution and cannot be done for long. Atleast preventive measures are less expensive and effective as well. Until a cure or vaccine is found.
There have already been discussions of this issue.
I agree with dear Ajaya Bhattarai ,Mary C R Wilson ,Muhammed Ashraful Alam ,Ruqia Quansar
Regards, Sergey Viktorovich Pushkin
Soap or hand sanitizer; Which one is more effective in fighting the pandemic?
Good question, Dr Renjith VishnuRadhan
This World Economic Forum link supports effective hand washing with soap:
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/03/coronavirus-soap-covid-19-virus-hygiene/
See the end of this link; my hand gel bottle only states that it is antibacterial. But as the link suggests, those with a high alcohol content should be effective. However, I have been using the gels supplied in stores and shopping centres and their alcohol content is not declared.
So, hand washing has my overwhelming support!
Thank you for this review on a hot topic. As regards the presentation, the alternative use of the terms ‘soap’ and ‘surfactant’ in the article may be somewhat confusing : please be more specific. Besides, all the figures represent negatively charged amphiphilic species, i.e. anionic surfactants (e.g. soaps). Now, it has been assessed that every type of surfactant, including the nonionic and maybe the cationic ones, are efficient against COVID-19. Such assumptions should be clarified. In case the authors would be interested, I could also comment on minor errors, redundancies and so on...
Regards,
J.P. Canselier