Answer: my-shield Hand Sanitizer
"Stomach flu" is just a nickname for viral gastroenteritis. It is not related to influenza, the real flu. ![]() For everyday life, vigorous hand washing is good enough to remove most of the germs. However, if you are in a public place and can't get to a sink, I would recommend using a hand sanitizer that has been tested and approved to kill norovirus. I do not recommend using regular 60-65% alcohol hand sanitizer gels such as Purell because they are likely to be ineffective against norovirus1. Two problems with finding a good hand sanitizer 1. The FDA is a problem. The FDA won't let hand sanitizer companies tell you what specific viruses or bacteria that a hand sanitizer kills. Many hand sanitizers test their products for their ability to kill norovirus surrogates and other illness causing germs. However, the FDA won't let them tell us the results. Cleaning products are allowed to list the germs they kill on the package. But hand sanitizers are not allowed. Zylast, one of my long-time favorite hand sanitizers got in big trouble with the FDA because they showed people, including me, their norovirus test results. I think it is ridiculous that the FDA doesn't think people deserve to have this information. 1. It has been difficult to test on human norovirus. It has been very difficult to test hand sanitizers and cleaning products on human norovirus, because human norovirus has refused to grow in the research lab. Human norovirus loves to attack cells inside people, but does not want to infect human cells in a petri dish. So, products that have been tested on human norovirus have looked at specific features, for example, if the viral capsid protein was damaged after treatment with this hand sanitizer or not? They have never been able to look at the end result, can the norovirus still infect cells after treatment with this hand sanitizer. Most products have been tested on norovirus surrogates. These are similar viruses, such as feline calicivirus and murine norovirus, which are able to infect cells in a petri dish. However, we can't be absolutely certain that a product that kills these surrogates would really kill human norovirus. There is hope, though! Thanks to Dr. Mary Estes, there has been a breakthrough in growing norovirus in a lab. So maybe soon products will be able to be tested on the real human norovirus. Until then, all I can do is give my best recommendations based on the data for products killing norovirus surrogates. Here are the hand sanitizers that I have been using that have been tested against norovirus surrogates. There may be other hand sanitizers that kill norovirus but they haven't been tested or won't release the results. I, however, can only recommend a hand sanitizer that HAS been tested and shown to kill a norovirus surrogate AND the company would give me the test information. Does Alcohol kill norovirus?
There are many different norovirus strains and some are more resistant to alcohol than others. Here is a research paper that tested many strains of human norovirus against ethanol and isopropanol. Ethanol worked better than isopropanol. Some strains of norovirus seemed sensitive to ethanol and some strains seemed resistant. Here is an article explaining that it isn't just the concentration of ethanol that matters. The Norovirus surrogate was killed better by 62.4% ethanol than by 77% ethanol. The addition of acids such as malic acid can improve norovirus-killing. So, whether or not a product can kill norovirus is much more complicated than just the ethanol concentration. These tests did NOT show that after treatment with ethanol, the norovirus could or could not infect a human cell. They were just looking at whether the viral capsid proteins were damaged. Companies that sell alcohol based hand sanitizers usually say that they add other ingredients to make the ethanol more effective. We hope that is true and not just a marketing gimmick. The norovirus surrogate Feline Calicivirus is more resistant to ethanol than the other commonly used surrogate, murine norovirus.
Zylast-- UPDATE: Since the pandemic Zylast has been using inferior alcohol and the hand sanitizer smells TERRIBLE. It smells like rotten fish food. It smells too bad to actually use. Do not buy Zylast. If they ever fix it and start making the fabulous Zylast that I always loved, I'll update here. Zylast Antiseptic Hand Sanitizer Zylast Antiseptic 76% ethanol, Water, Polyaminopropyl Biquanide, Panthenol, Hydroxyethyl Ethylcellulose, Farnesol, Peg-12, Dimethicone, and Benzethonium Chloride. Zylast Antiseptic LOTION .2% Benzethonium Chloride, Water, Alcohol Denat., Cetearyl Alcohol, Glycerin, Polyaminopropyl Biquanide, Dimethicone, Stearamidopropyl Dimethylamine, Benzyl Alcohol, Farnesol, Panthenol, Zinc gluconate, Chlorhexidine Digluconate, Citric Acid, Polyquaternium-10, and Tocopheryl Acetate. *****I have been getting complaints about people getting poor customer service from Zylast. So, I also recommend a nearly identical product (I'm pretty sure that only the bottle is different) called Clean Boss. I've tested Clean Boss. It works great, just like Zylast. You can see those results here. My-Shield Hand Sanitizer my-shield Hand Sanitizer Clorox Hand Sanitizing Spray Clorox Hand Sanitizer Spray
The company Germstar® has specifically designed a hand sanitizer that kills norovirus. It is called Germstar Noro
STERIZAR The company Germ-Aside also has a very exciting hand sanitizer called Sterizar Hand Foamer. Unfortunately, it is not available in the US at this time. It is only available in the UK. This hand sanitizer promises not only to kill norovirus but also claims to continue working for 6 hours! I have read their experimental procedures and test results and am very impressed. 6 hours after application, the test subjects who used the hand sanitizer had 99% less bacteria on their hands than the control people who did not use the hand sanitizer. Here is a link to all of their test results. It takes forever to download so be patient. When reading hand sanitizer test results it is important to understand what "log" means. Test results always talk about "log reduction". A log reduction of 5, means that the product kills 99.999% of germs. A log reduction of 4, means that it kills 99.99% of germs. A log reduction of 3 means that it kills 99.9% of germs. A log reduction of 2 means that the product kills 99% of germs. A log reduction of 1 means that the product kills 90% of germs. Without this information, it is difficult to understand the test results.
Does Purell Advanced kill norovirus?I contacted the makers of Purell on March 8, 2012 and Oct. 1, 2014 to see if Purell Advanced was effective against norovirus. They said that they could not provide me with any of that information. This does not mean that Purell Advanced DOESN't kill norovirus, it just means that they either haven't tested it or won't/can't release the results of the test. However, if you look at my experimental results comparing Purell Advanced to Zylast, you will see that Zylast does so much better.
Do Wet Ones Antibacterial wipes kill norovirus?Internet rumors say that Wet Ones Anti-Bacterial Wipes Is it safe to put hand sanitizer on a child who sucks his/her thumb? Many people wonder if it is okay to put hand sanitizer on the hands of a child who sucks his/her thumb. Most hand sanitizers are made with ethyl alcohol (ethanol). That is the same alcohol that people drink in beer and wine. So, ingesting a small amount of ethanol is unlikely to hurt anyone. I called the Ohio poison control center about this on March 13, 2012 and the nurse told me that it was perfectly safe for a child to eat the tiny bit of ethanol based hand sanitizer that was on his/her hand. I put alcohol hand sanitizer on my daughter and try to make her wait until her hands are dry before she sucks her thumb. I can't vouch for the safety of other ingredients that may be in your particular hand sanitizer or of all the other types of hand sanitizers. However, such tiny amounts probably aren't harmful. I am not proud of this but when my youngest son was 17 months old, he ate a puff of my hair mousse, a finger full of black craft paint, desitin, a mouthful of dryer lint, and one ladybug. I called poison control each time and they said none of it would be a problem since he only ate tiny amounts. My son never got sick and was fine. --Annie Pryor, Ph.D.
1. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3044752/ 2. http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pubmed&pubmedid=18586970 http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/12/30/disinfectant.superbugs/ 3.http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22293670 4.http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22897744
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