Does Hand Sanitizer Work for Viruses?

Alcohol is the main ingredient of hand sanitizers that kills viruses. Hand sanitizers kill viruses with the process called denaturation. Denaturation is a process that inactivates a virus’s proteins. The alcohol in hand sanitizers inactivates the proteins. It can be compared to cooking an egg. The solidified egg white represents the virus’s denatured proteins.

Does hand sanitizer work for viruses? Hand sanitizers may or may not work on viruses. It really depends on how much alcohol concentration it contains. In general, a hand sanitizer will effectively work on viruses when it has at least 60% of alcohol content. It is also best to keep in mind that hand sanitizers have different alcohol content.

The most effective way of killing a virus is for a hand sanitizer to stay in your hands for a while. This is the reason why alcohol is more effective when diluted in water or gel base. One more thing to take note is alcohol can dry the skin in your hands. This is why hand sanitizers contain moisturizers to maintain the suppleness of your skin while killing viruses.

When purchasing hand sanitizers make sure to look for the alcohol concentration. Higher alcohol content may not be necessary. A hand sanitizer with 60% to 70% alcohol content is good enough to effectively kill most viruses.