Open AccessPersonal care formulations demonstrate virucidal efficacy against multiple SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern: Implications for hand hygiene and public health
Author(s) -
Sayandip Mukherjee,
Carol Vincent,
Harshinie W. Jayasekera,
Ashish Shrikant Yekhe
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
plos global public health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2767-3375
DOI - 10.1371/journal.pgph.0000228
Subject(s) - extant taxon , hygiene , covid-19 , transmissibility (structural dynamics) , personal hygiene , personal protective equipment , strain (injury) , medicine , virology , virus , intervention (counseling) , immunology , environmental health , biology , family medicine , nursing , infectious disease (medical specialty) , disease , pathology , physics , vibration isolation , evolutionary biology , quantum mechanics , vibration
Despite considerable progress being made on vaccine roll out, practicing proper hand hygiene has been advocated as a consistent precautionary intervention against the circulating and emerging variants of SARS-CoV-2. Two variants of concern, namely beta and delta, have been shown to exhibit enhanced transmissibility, high viral load, and ability to escape antibody-mediated neutralization. In this report we have empirically determined the efficacy of selected personal care formulations from Unilever in inactivating the beta and delta variants of SARS-CoV-2 under simulated real-life conditions. All the formulations demonstrated greater than 99.9% reduction in viral infective titres which is comparable to inactivation of the original strain of SARS-CoV-2 virus tested under the same conditions. Therefore, it can be concluded that well-designed personal care formulations when tested under consumer-centric conditions, and with proven efficacy against the parent strain of SARS-CoV-2 will continue to be effective against extant and emerging variants of SARS-CoV-2.