Evaluation of potentiality of traditional hygienic practices for the mitigation of the 2019–2020 Corona Pandemic

Abstract

The coronavirus outbreak threatens global well-being, costing thousands of lives and an unstable economy. Traditional hand-washing (HaWa) with clean water and hand-washing sanitizers (HaWaSas) are among WHO recommended practices against the outbreaks. HaWaSa and HaWa lacked proper quality monitoring evaluation that may pose health risks. The current study investigates the potential of traditional hygienic practices adopted to mitigate the 2019-2020 Pandemic. It involved assessing the effectiveness of 15 HaWaSa collected from the Dodoma market. Thirty volunteered participants were subjected to different hygienic practices involving HaWa and HaWaSa. The obtained hand-swabbed samples were subjected to the streak plate technique for inoculation, followed by counting colonies. The results revealed that, among the collected HaWaSa brands, only 33.3% were certified by the Tanzania Bureau of Standards (TBS). In the setting under no hand-wash, each client had a different number of colony counts. HaWa did not eliminate all colonies since water acted as a secondary source while only one sanitizer proved effective. The p-values obtained in either setting were greater than 0.05, indicating that each variable was independent. Despite global awareness and fighting against the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (Covid-19) outbreak, quality monitoring of all diagnostic tools, preventive HaWaSa, and related drugs should be prioritized for human safeguard.

A comparative in-vitro study on antimicrobial efficacy of on-market alcohol-based hand washing sanitizers towards combating microbes and its application in combating Covid-19 global outbreak

“…These results indicate that the quality of sanitizers available at the Dodoma city and other regions needs quality evaluation and periodic monitoring. Similar findings were reported in the previous study that evaluated hygienic practices, and among the practices, the use of alcohol-based hand sanitizers was reported [ 6 ]. The current study further indicates that, the tested sanitizers effectively inhibited P. aeroginosa, a gram-positive bacterium, compared to other microbes.…”

“…The Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic has become a major global public health concern. The necessity of hand cleanliness and respiratory protection in preventing the transmission of the virus has been a top priority for mitigating the outbreak [[ [1] , [2] , [3] , [4] , [5] , [6] ]]. All formulations of hand washing sanitizers are therefore required by health regulatory organizations to attained and maintain certain standards [ 5 ], [[ [7] , [8] , [9] , [10] ]].…”