ALCOHOL BASED SOLUTIONS FOR HAND AND SURFACE SANITATION IN THE PREVENTION OF COVID-19: INFORMATIVE COMPENDIUM REGARDING THE INVOLVED CHEMISTRY

The recent coronavirus pandemic has already victimized hundreds of thousands of people around the world, and until this moment does not exist any medicine for healing or vaccine to avoid the contamination. Therefore, the actions of social isolation associated with the use of masks and surface and hand sanitation are the most effective actions to avoid the virus dissemination. The hands are one of the main vectors of contagious, and should be washed constantly and sanitized with some disinfectant agent. Among the recommendations, the formulations based on ethyl alcohol and isopropyl alcohol are the most used, being the efficiency of these formulations based on the alcohol type, the concentration, the applied volume, and the contact time. The gel disinfectants are preferred by the population due to the facile and safer manipulation. However, due to the pandemic, the main gelling agent has become sparse and, in the function of this, some countries authorized the utilization of alternative formulations. The World Health Organization recommends two formulations, being one based on ethyl alcohol (80 Vol%) and the second on isopropyl alcohol (75 Vol%), destined for the local manufacture and with a fast and effective action.近年来的新冠疫情已在全球造成数十万人罹难，且截至目前仍未研发出针对该病的治疗药物或预防感染的疫苗。因此，社交隔离（social isolation）、佩戴口罩以及环境与手部消毒，是当前遏制病毒传播最为有效的防控措施。手部是病毒传播的主要媒介之一，需经常清洗并使用消毒剂（disinfectant agent）进行消杀。在各类推荐的消毒剂配方中，以乙醇（ethyl alcohol）和异丙醇（isopropyl alcohol）为基础的配方应用最为广泛，此类配方的消杀效果取决于酒精种类、浓度、使用剂量与接触时间。消毒凝胶（gel disinfectants）因操作简便、安全性更高而深受大众青睐。但受疫情影响，主要胶凝剂（gelling agent）供应日趋紧张，为此部分国家批准使用替代配方。世界卫生组织（World Health Organization）推荐了两款配方：一款以80% Vol%的乙醇为基础，另一款以75% Vol%的异丙醇为基础，适用于本地生产，且具备快速高效的消杀作用。