Search

Objectives: Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, global health authorities identified and emphasized the importance of practicing proper hand hygiene to reduce the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 and to diminish the chances of becoming infected. It is well established in the scientific literature that surfactants and alcohols are capable of inactivating enveloped viruses such as SARS-CoV-2. However, given the novel nature of the virus, Unilever adopted an evidence-based approach to demonstrate virucidal efficacy of marketed bar soaps, liquid handwashes, and alcohol-based hand sanitizers against the original and selected variants of SARS-CoV-2. Methods: High titers of clinically isolated and laboratory-propagated SARS-CoV-2 strains were subjected to a range of selected proprietary formulations from Unilever at end-user–relevant dilutions, temperature, and contact duration, and were tested according to the internationally recognized ASTM E-1052 test protocol. Results: All tested personal-care formulations were effective against the parental SARS-CoV-2 strain as well as the β (beta) and δ (delta) variants of concern. More specifically, bar soaps with a varying concentration of total fatty matter content and liquid handwashes with varying levels of total surfactants reduced the viral titer by >99.9% within 20 seconds. Alcohol-based hand sanitizers demonstrated >99.99% reduction of input viral load within 15 seconds of contact with the viral inoculum. Conclusions: In conclusion, we have provided empirical proof that well-designed personal-care formulations that act through generic physicochemical mechanism against the basic structure of the virus particle have high virucidal efficacy against the original and evolved SARS-CoV-2 variants. Furthermore, we argue that due to the broad-spectrum mode of action of these tested formulations, the continued practice of good hand hygiene practices with everyday products holds significant promise as an easily accessible, economic, and effective nontherapeutic public health intervention toward reducing the transmission of present and future variants of SARS-CoV-2 across communities and populations.

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.