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. 2020 May 11;17(9):3326.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph17093326.

Hand Sanitizers: A Review on Formulation Aspects, Adverse Effects, and Regulations

Jane Lee Jia Jing  1 , Thong Pei Yi  1 , Rajendran J C Bose  2 , Jason R McCarthy  2 , Nagendran Tharmalingam  3 , Thiagarajan Madheswaran  4
Affiliations

Hand Sanitizers: A Review on Formulation Aspects, Adverse Effects, and Regulations

Jane Lee Jia Jing et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

Hand hygiene is of utmost importance as it may be contaminated easily from direct contact with airborne microorganism droplets from coughs and sneezes. Particularly in situations like pandemic outbreak, it is crucial to interrupt the transmission chain of the virus by the practice of proper hand sanitization. It can be achieved with contact isolation and strict infection control tool like maintaining good hand hygiene in hospital settings and in public. The success of the hand sanitization solely depends on the use of effective hand disinfecting agents formulated in various types and forms such as antimicrobial soaps, water-based or alcohol-based hand sanitizer, with the latter being widely used in hospital settings. To date, most of the effective hand sanitizer products are alcohol-based formulations containing 62%-95% of alcohol as it can denature the proteins of microbes and the ability to inactivate viruses. This systematic review correlated with the data available in Pubmed, and it will investigate the range of available hand sanitizers and their effectiveness as well as the formulation aspects, adverse effects, and recommendations to enhance the formulation efficiency and safety. Further, this article highlights the efficacy of alcohol-based hand sanitizer against the coronavirus.

Keywords: hand disinfectants; hand sanitizer; infection control.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Various types of hand sanitizer dosage forms.
Figure 2
Figure 2
List of alcohol, non-alcohol compounds, and commonly used excipients in hand sanitizers.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Illustration of alcohols antiviral mechanism. (Acknowledgement: The illustration was designed using BioRender scientific illustration program).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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