Hand Sanitizer an Alternative to Hand Washing—A Review of Literature

Abstract

Aim: COVID-19 is a new illness and a big threat to global health. No specific antiviral agents are available for its treatment. The finest approach to manage this threat is to clean our hands properly. Washing hands under running water is a better way to stop the spread of infections than using a hand sanitizer. The aim of the study is to show that washing hands is efficacious than using a dab of alcohol-based hand sanitizer. Materials and Methods: A search was performed using three databases, PubMed, Scopus, and Google Scholar published from 2010 to 2019. The keywords for the survey were “hand-washing,” “hand sanitizer,” and “effective.” After the relevant articles were found, the critical appraisal was made to select those that were suitable for the systematic review. The inclusion criteria of the study were surveys, clinical studies, no sample size restrictions, and only English papers. Any conference abstracts, case reports, and unpublished data were excluded from this study. Results: On the basis of the keywords, 22 relevant articles were found, and of those, 17 articles were selected for the systematic review. Conclusion: This study evaluated that washing hands with soap and water are more practical and efficacious than using the sanitizer on greasy and soiled hands. An alcohol-based sanitizer, if used correctly and in appropriate volume, can disseminate certain type of micro-organisms.