New hand sanitiser could beat bird flu
Las Vegas-based topical skin applications r&d firm Skinvisible has revealed positive results for its new hand sanitiser when tested against the H5N1 avian flu virus.
The patent-pending Chlorhexidine Antimicrobial Hand Sanitiser had a greater than 98% inactivation/kill on the H5N1 virus for up to four hours on skin. The study was conducted by Retroscreen Virology (subsidiary of University of London’s Queen Mary School of Medicine), and differentiates Skinvisible’s sanitiser from other scrubs and alcohol-based treatments, which offer protection only after immediate application to the skin.
‘The longer the active stays on the skin to kill the virus the better’, Retroscreen said. Skinvisible will look to establish its hand sanitiser as an essential product for the healthcare industry, that could stop person-to-person cross-contamination.
The antimicrobial hand sanitiser formula uses 2.25% chlorhexidine, a non-toxic antiseptic as an active ingredient. The product will undergo further tests soon against other viruses, such as norovirus, rhinovi-rus, influenza A (H1 and H3), H2 and influenza B.