/https://www.thestar.com/content/dam/thestar/news/gta/2020/05/13/how-to-keep-your-shoes-covid19-free-and-other-pandemic-cleaning-tips-for-your-home/covid19cleaning.jpg)
You know it's pandemic when you search for cleaning products online at Walmart. The only "Bleach" available is Nirvana's debut album.
Or the hand sanitizer that you clicked on and placed in your shopping cart is out of stock before you can pay.
This raises the question: If you can't get the products, experts say you need to keep your hands clean and your home COVID-19 free . What can you use?
The answer is soap and water, says microbiologist Dasantila Golemi-Kotra, professor of biology at York University.
The detergent works just like trying to remove the virus from your skin, she says.
Most of the soaps that are used to clean the house, including liquid dish soap and laundry soap, contain detergents that break down the virus, he says.
And a mixture of soap and water with enough soap to create foam works well at home.
The reason? COVID-19 - SARS-CoV-2 - has an oil membrane that resembles oil, says Golemi-Kotra.
"And the detergent molecule (in soap) consists of two parts. Some like oil. The other side likes water, "she says." The part of the detergent that likes the oil gets into the virus membrane and destroys it. "
Mixing soap and water also removes dirt and saliva, which can prevent disinfectants from coming into contact with germs on surfaces, as well as oils in which microorganisms can survive.
"For a disinfectant to work properly, it must first be washed with a detergent. Then it must be disinfected," says Golemi-Kotra. "You need to have that physical contact between the chemical and any surface you want to disinfect to get the desired effect."
(Many hand soaps with antimicrobial properties also contain detergents and other disinfectants, but body soaps or those that are mild to the hands may not contain detergents, and therefore their disinfectant properties will be lower.)
The use of soap and water is not practical in hospitals or other public places, says Golemi-Kotra, since the viral load is so much higher than a lot of detergent and cleaning would be required to destroy and eliminate the virus.
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to register"In hospitals, they use disinfectants to destroy the virus, and they often have other properties that evaporate and you don't have to deal with wet surfaces everywhere," says Golemi-Kotra. The products they use often contain cleaning agents that help remove dirt from the surface.
Although Golemi-Kotra says it's good to use soap and water at home, she admits to using a mixture of chlorine and water to clean the toilets in the house she shares. with her husband and children.
The mixture is "an excellent disinfectant or disinfectant". It's pretty powerful, "she says.
Spray the solution and rub the surfaces before rinsing.
And as part of her cleaning routine, she has a regular pattern of surfaces like doorknobs, which she sprinkles with disinfectant, which she lets stand for 15 minutes before cleaning again with a sponge.
"I am a microbiologist by profession. I work with bacteria and can easily become paranoid. Part of the problem is that I understand what could possibly happen, "says Golemi-Kotra. "So I go beyond what is really necessary," she says, even if it means that her husband and children are bothering her.
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