Health Tips: Which is more effective than soap or antiviral hand wash to kill Covid-19 germs?

After the corona virus spread globally in the form of epidemics, we have always heard of lock downs - wear masks and maintain social distance. But at first the emphasis was on hand washing with soap and water to kill the covid germs. Have we gradually forgotten that advice?

Hand washing is an innate human instinct. We wash our hands when they are dirty. Many times in daily life I wash my hands as a matter of habit. But in the last six months, hand washing has become a part of our lives.

The simplest weapon we've come to forget about the corona virus we've been fighting with - such as masks, social distance, isolation or self-isolation - is hand washing.

When the corona virus became an emergency health problem worldwide in February, health agencies quickly advised people what to do to survive the new virus.

One suggestion - which we hear, read, and see day after day - in news bulletins, in newspaper pages, in advertisements, in expert interviews - was to wash your hands thoroughly with soap and hot water for at least 20 seconds.

The graphics of how to properly wash your hands by the World Health Organization have spread widely around the world. That image we saw at the beginning of the epidemic is everywhere - in restaurants, in bars where there is public hand washing.

What is hand washing is now lost advice

It's been six months since the Corona epidemic spread around the world. Where the infection is still at the top, where it is decreasing or decreasing again, where locally lock down is being issued or where curfew should be imposed to prevent the infection, the issue of hand washing has become somewhat secondary.

The more the lock down is relaxed, the more everything is being opened, the more the importance of wearing a face mask or covering the face is coming to the fore. Where, when, how to wear a mask is now at the center of the discussion. As a result, the original key to stopping the virus is now lost in the crowd of other advice?

A recent survey in Ethiopia found that less than 1 percent of the 1,000 people who go to the hospital wash their hands properly. So has the advice changed?

Not at all - experts are reminding. They say the need for hand washing has now doubled. Because people are not under house arrest like before. A lot of people have started to come out. As a result, the movement of the virus has increased along with them.

Thomas Gilbert, a professor of chemistry and biochemistry at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts, USA, says the chemical composition of the corona virus is the cheapest soap and hot water to break it down.

The outer layer of the virus, which encloses the genetic material of the bacterium, is called the lipid membrane. This coating is kind of oily, '' he says. "Soap and water melt this coating."

The "envelope" that encloses the cells of the virus, if that membrane is broken, the germ cells can no longer be in a union, they break down and at the same time the components of its genes lose their ability to function. It is this genetic material that attacks the human body cells, and continues to multiply and spread throughout the cell. As a result, it is possible to disable the virus if the cover can be destroyed.

"There is still no suggestion to reduce hand washing time," said Thomas Gilbert.

'' So you have to make a good foam with both hands by soaking your hands and applying soap. Then wash each part of the hand thoroughly with that soap for twenty seconds. Every crevice, all the area around the nail should be washed with soapy foam. '' Mr Gilbert says, '' It takes twenty seconds to complete the chemical reaction required to break down the oily coating. To remove the last bit of germs from the hands, soap should be given time to do its work and a little hot water will work to wash away the soap.

'Soap must be used'

Martin Mickelis, a professor of molecular science at the University of Kent in Britain, says the virus cannot be destroyed by washing hands with water alone. '' Suppose you are cooking, you have oil on your hands or fingers. If you just use water, will that oil go?

"I can't. He needs soap. The same is true of coronavirus. Soap would break its oily coating. Only then can the virus be deactivated. "

The effectiveness of hand washing with soapy water has faded due to increasing use of hand sanitizers. This chemical to disinfect hands is easy to carry around in small bottles. It is very convenient to use it anywhere in the store market. So people are more inclined towards this sanitizer.

Thomas Gilbert says, if you stay indoors all day. If outsiders do not come to your house, you will not need to wash your hands frequently.

'' You can keep this kind of hand sanitizer in the car, or in the front door of your house, or in a bag or pocket, for use where soap or water is not available. But where there is soap and water, I think it is best to use soap and water, "he said. Gilbert.

How often should I wash my hands?

At the beginning of the epidemic, scientific advisers to the British government advised people to wash their hands every few hours, although most people stayed indoors because of the lock down. Mr. Gilbert says people who live indoors don't need to wash their hands so often. However, everyone must wash their hands after using the toilet and before preparing food and before eating.

If someone cares for a patient infected with Covid-19 or any other virus, they need to wash their hands frequently. Especially if they catch something that the infected person touches or the infected person sneezes or coughs on something that he or she is holding with his or her hand, then he or she must wash his or her hands immediately.

Thi Mui Pham, a German researcher, wrote in her research paper that she found that if someone touched something that an infected person touched, it was much more effective to wash their hands immediately. In that case, washing your hands after a few hours may not be as effective.

Soap vs. anti-viral hand wash

Many are not in favor of using anti-viral handwash, because they think that anti-viral handwash is more effective than ordinary soap. But Professor Mickelis says that's not true.

"There's really no need for that," he says.

'' Many people prefer to use antiseptic or antibacterial instead of ordinary soap. There are other risks to using these too much. After using these disinfectants for a long time, these disinfectants accumulate in the waste water and many germs develop their resistance against these chemicals, when these disinfectants no longer work. In the long run, their use also harms the environment, '' says Professor Mickelis.

Professor Gilbert and Professor Mickelis both say that washing hands with soapy water is the best way to fight the virus if you have reliable quality water.

However, many underdeveloped or underdeveloped countries of the world lack fairly pure water. In many places water is scarce. The World Health Organization (WHO) said in a report earlier this month that two out of five schools in the world did not have enough access to hand washing before the Corona epidemic broke out.

However, they say that hand washing water does not need to be as pure as drinking water to prevent coronavirus. "If you have soap or something like soap on hand, it will work."

Scientists say it is a good practice to wash your hands to prevent not only the Covid-19 virus, but also other influenza and other germs. Experts suggest that many infectious diseases can be prevented if we make it a part of our daily routine, just as hand washing is recommended to prevent coronary heart disease.

Professor Mickelis thinks that if we can maintain the habit of hand washing even when the flu or flu is spreading in the winter season, it will give us a chance to prevent the disease.

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