Re: Is antibacterial soap better for ridding hands of viruses?

Hello Kelly:

The literature on the efficacy of hand sanitizers on the removal or destruction of viral agents is rather sparse. It is difficult to identify virus particles and to isolate them from surfaces and foods, therefore no good measures exist for effectiveness of the treatment.

Basically, the FDA requires at least a 99% reduction in the bacterial contaminates upon application of a hand sanitizer in order to legally claim the product to be anti-bacterial. There are no hand sanitizers that can legally claim to be anti-viral agents as of yet (that I am aware of).

However, from the literature it appears that alcohol based sanitizers are effective to some measure against viral agents on the hands. At the same time, other studies indicate that many viral agents, especially Hepatitis A virus, are somewhat resistant to typical food service sanitizers at strength safe for human exposure. If you are interested, I have extensive references for you. If you would like to conduct a literature search on the topic of hand sanitizers, hand soaps and efficacy, I'd be glad to provide these to you through MAD Scientist Network.

Thanks for your question.

Roy E costa RS MS
Education and Training Specialist
State of Florida

Moderator's Note: The ability of soaps or other sanitizers to affect viruses depends in part on whether the virus is enveloped, meaning whether it carries a coat of lipid membrane from the cell it infected. Such viruses are often more sensitive to soaps as the detergent disrupts the membrane. Some preparations of human clotting factors (given to hemophiliacs) undergo "detergent treatment" and other procedures to destroy enveloped viruses such as HIV. Non-enveloped viruses (such as the Hepatitis A, B or C virus)are less likely to be affected by detergents, though the washing effect would certainly reduce the number of particles left on the hands.

-L. Bry, MicroViro Moderator