Personal care formulations demonstrate virucidal efficacy against multiple SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern: Implications for hand hygiene and public health.

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.

Antiviral efficacy of personal care formulations against Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2.

Background: Non-therapeutic interventions such as practicing good hand hygiene continue to be the mainstay of protection from SARS-CoV-2 and other emerging respiratory viruses.

Methods: We have evaluated a range of commercially available personal care products including soaps, handwash liquids and alcohol-based hand sanitizers for antiviral efficacy against a clinical isolate of SARS-CoV-2 using internationally accepted standardized protocols at user-relevant contact time-points and product dilutions.

Results: All the tested products resulted in 3 to 4 log reduction of SARS-CoV-2 titer.