Purify the germs responsible for COVID-19

A meme is circulating on the Internet that compares the statement "As soon as COVID-19 is over" with the possibility of winning the lottery.

The two seem very out of your league, but continuing to be vigilant with frequent hand washing, social distancing, wearing masks and grooming, especially in late summer and when schools reopen, could potentially make a difference to the coronavirus pandemic, experts say.

Ernesto Abel-Santos , a professor of biochemistry at UNLV who studies bacteria such as anthrax and the hospital infection, Clostridium difficile (C-diff), said we must continue to be "as careful as possible" in the day-to-day decisions and activities we participate in while the pandemic continues.

While social distancing, hand washing, and face covering remain the most careful measures people can take, keeping an eye on frequent cleaning is also a tool, according to Abel-Santos. Indispensable in our arsenal, especially in classrooms where students come and go.

Here Abel-Santos offers the best cleaning methods to keep virus germs at bay.

How important is cleaning surfaces to protect against a disease like COVID-19? How often should surfaces be cleaned? Is it as important as frequent hand washing?

Frequent hand washing is always the most important measure to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Combined with social distancing and wearing a mask without effective treatment or vaccination, these are the top three things you can do.

The primary way to get COVID-19 is through face-to-face contact. So when someone sneezes, coughs, speaks, or sings, it comes out of your mouth, and that's how most people get it.

Depending on the surface, the virus can remain on surfaces for several hours to several days. We need to clean the surfaces frequently, but the frequency depends on how the area is used.

For example, classrooms where a group of students comes in and out and then another group follows must be cleaned after each lesson. Each person should be responsible for cleaning their office before leaving. And if you are the person entering the class, you also need to disinfect as you don't know if the person did it before you.

Masks must also be permanently decontaminated. People should wear disposable masks or wash their cloth masks at the end of the day. Masks should be treated like underwear - change them daily.

Are all surfaces in your home and office the same? Are some surfaces more likely to contain germs than others?

The virus can remain in the box for up to 24 hours. It can remain on copper surfaces for up to four hours, but two to three days on plastic and stainless steel surfaces. It can stay in the air for up to three hours.

Copper is usually more reactive, so the virus can be killed more quickly. Rigid surfaces like plastic, stainless steel, and maybe even marble provide a better environment for the surface to survive. But there are still many things that we do not know, so we need to be as careful as possible and clean frequently.

You need to ask yourself what is the likelihood that a particular surface will be exposed. Being isolated at home and minimizing going out and avoiding bars, churches, gyms, or other places where people congregate in large numbers will reduce your risks and eliminate the need to decontaminate. Surfaces so common. If you share an office or work in an office where people are constantly coming and going, you will need to clean more often. An office at the end of a hallway behind a partition wall does not carry the same risk of a receptionist coming into contact with several people.

Which disinfectants are most effective at killing the germs that cause COVID-19?

COVID-19, like other viruses outside of the body, is actually quite weak and weak. You can neutralize them with alcohol. Laundry detergents containing quaternary ammonium salts are also effective.

Any disinfectant kills viruses. But again, one of the most effective strategies is hand washing. You don't realize how many times you touch your face with your hands each day. If you touch a surface and then touch your face, the chances of infection increase.

A word of warning. You need to be careful at this point as the number of alcohol-based disinfectants has grown dramatically. Many new companies have sprung up to meet demand, but some companies are adulterating alcohol levels.

Some use methanol, which is wood alcohol. Skin exposure isn't that bad, but when kids come in and ingest it, it can cause blindness.

How long should the cleaner stay on the surface before cleaning?

It depends on the disinfectant. For example, alcohol-based disinfectants evaporate very quickly. After a few seconds it disappears.

Each disinfectant has the instructions on the bottle with the recommended use. It is important to read the manufacturer's instructions carefully and to follow them correctly.

Should I wear gloves when cleaning?

I wouldn't unless recommended by the manufacturer. You can wear gloves when using something like bleach, but that will protect you from the bleach more than anything. We use gloves in laboratories, but they are not recommended in private households.

Gloves are also counterproductive in situations such as shopping in a supermarket. In a laboratory setting, we wear gloves all the time, but we have glove boxes and boxes and we keep changing them.

As soon as you touch a surface, your gloves become contaminated. It is the same when you touch the surface with your bare hands. If you touch your face with a contaminated glove, you are at the same risk of contracting the virus as if you were touching your face with your bare hands.

How can you be sure that the cleaning products companies use are effective in preventing COVID-19?

You just can't do that. He hopes everyone will take it seriously and follow the procedures for disinfecting and keeping things safe as set out by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the World Health Organization . However, this is not a guarantee.

When you go out, I recommend bringing a little disinfectant spray and cleaning the area. But considering the way things are now, I wouldn't recommend going to places like gyms, bars, movie theaters, or any other place where large numbers of people gather.

Surface cleaning is important, but secondary to measures like social distancing, use of masks, and hand washing.

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