Hi Besties! What’s up today? I hope everything is alright. Today I want to talk about hand sanitizer, how important is hand sanitizer? Before that, I was honestly not a fan of hand sanitizer user. Because I prefer to wash my hands with soap. Sometimes I use it only when I can’t find water. But if you need a hand sanitizer, then read this post…
Previously, we had heard of many new and emerging diseases and the famous now is coronavirus or now known as Covid-19. Since Covid-19 is very popular now, let’s find out what Covid-19 is.
What is Covid-19 – the disease that started in Wuhan?
I once heard about Beijing, the Great Wall and how cheap things in China, but now China is known for a virus known as Covid – 19 (formerly coronavirus) that started in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei China, a locked region in central China.
Wuhan is built along the Yangtze River and is about 500 miles west of Shanghai and 690 miles north of Hong Kong. It is the largest and most densely populated city in central China despite its varied population estimates.
Image by Pete Linforth from Pixabay
Since this post is written, at least 6443 people have died in total, which means that the death toll from Covid-19 surpassed the Sars outbreak in 2002 and 2003 where the total cases of positive Covid-19 are 162,711. That’s a lot!
And for our country Malaysia, the number of confirmed cases is 553 where 42 have been discharged with 0 death.
Where did this Covid-19 come from?
It all starts with the seafood market. Where all wild animals such as birds, bats, snakes, and marmots are illegally traded. The virus is said to have originated from the animal ‘leaping’ to the human being at that time. It shocked me when the virus is so advanced that it can easily jump to humans anyway.
The city of Wuhan was closed for inspection and cleanup on January 1, but by then it appeared that the Covid-19 was smarter and began to spread outside the country itself. On January 21, the WHO Western Pacific office stated that the disease was also transmitted among humans – clear evidence after medical staff became infected with the virus. Cases in Taiwan, Thailand, Germany, Vietnam, Japan, Franc, UK, and the United States also involve patients who have never been to China, indicating that there is some human transmission to humans outside of China. Scary right? This means that the infection is now as easy as the common cold.
What are the Covid-19 symptoms?
This virus can cause pneumonia. Those who are sick are reported to have cough, fever and difficulty breathing. In severe cases, there may be organ failure. When it comes to viruses, antibiotics (more too bacteria) don’t work and all the antiviral drugs we have against the flu won’t work. Those who have recovered are not actually due to taking the medicine but their immune system is strong against Covid-19. So, the moral story here your immune system is more important to fight any disease.
How many people have been affected?
China recorded 3204 deaths as a result of the Covid-19 outbreak. To date, health officials have confirmed 81,068 cases in mainland China. So, why is this worse than normal influenza, and what are the concerns of experts? The experts said, “We still don’t know how dangerous the new Covid-19 is, and we won’t know until more data comes in. Although the death rate is only 2%, it is expected to increase in the future. For comparison, seasonal flu typically has a mortality rate of less than 1% while Sars has a mortality rate of over 10%.”
Image by _freakwave_ from Pixabay
How is Covid-19 contagious?
When a person is infected with a cough, such as a coughing flu, it will release tiny droplets from their mouth. These tiny droplets contain viruses and when they cough in front of you and those tiny drops go into your eyes, mouth, and nose, you get infected. So when you see someone with a cold or cough in public, try to distance yourself about 2 meters to avoid getting exposed to these drops. Give them masks to prevent the spread of the virus.
In general, you can prevent yourself from going to crowded places because an infected person can show no symptoms or no symptoms at all. Those who wear masks may not even be ill to protect themselves from being infected. So, that’s mean more online shopping, less mall shopping. It’s kind of weird today, you stay at home but the money still can decreasing.
However, be aware because sometimes a patient’s saliva can stick to their hands, stairs, pens, elevator buttons, or wherever they may be. Even outside your masks even if they cough in front of you. And if you hold onto what they hold, rub your eyes or touch your nose and face, you may get sick and infected.
So what do you need to do?
The virus can last up to 24 hours on an object and the most effective way is to make sure the surrounding objects and your hands are always washed with soap. If going to the public toilet scares you, do make sure you wash your hands or take a bath if you have just gone to a crowded public place. Below are some of the safety precaution you make take to decrease the risk:
1) Avoid touching your face or the faces of others. If you really want to hold your face, wash your hands. This means not only washing with water, but with soap near all parts of the hand. Hands, fingers, nails for at least 20 seconds.
2) Avoid wearing masks over and over again. For the sake of saving, there are shops that intentionally raise the price of the mask. But if you think it’s been used for too long, wear a new one. Bacteria can grow on the inside of the mask if you wear it for too long. Remember that your mouth also has bacteria. You want to avoid viruses, but bacteria are coming through the mouth. This is not a good practice also. Avoid touching the outside of the mask if possible or if you are in a hurry to wash your hands.
3) Do not share food, spoons, forks, bowls, glasses, towels and so on. Make sure your children and children have their own equipment to reduce the risk of infection.
4) Wash hands repeatedly. Before eating, after eating, after going to the toilet, after having lunch with your cat, and after you have just returned from work or to the shopping mall.
Image by Martin Slavoljubovski from Pixabay
If you want to avoid hand washing in public, you can always get a hand sanitizer and use it everywhere. Alcohol can kill 99.9% of bacteria 30 seconds after application and can kill some viruses. You can buy hand sanitizers like Dettol and others but if you are sensitive skin, there are many natural and organic hand sanitizers that are effectively sold in the market.
Which natural hand sanitizer is the best?
There are even organic ones to know. Below I list some hand sanitizer free of harmful, natural and organic chemicals. What I listed below was selected based on the best reviews available on the Amazon and Shopee websites.
Do you want to see germs? This one is on sale on Amazon, the best Glo Germ wear can see the effectiveness of this lotion. Use uv light to see before and after using Glo Germ. You’ll see for yourself the germs in your hands. Like magic!
Made from natural alcohol with 2 times the power of killing germs compared to other brands. Free of parabens, phthalates and other harmful chemicals. Purell contains Ecologics certified with essential oils and natural moisturizers for your skin.
Dr. Bronner’s Organic Hand Sanitizers are formulated with only 4 ingredients namely organic fair trade ethyl alcohol, water, organic glycerin, and organic lavender oil. Simple and effective! Useful for children and spray any part of the virus that is easily infected.
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Want to make your own Hand Sanitizer?
What I know is hand sanitizer will not work if your hands are greasy or too dirty, it is best to hand sanitizer is to wash your hands with water and soap. But if you have to use hand sanitizer especially in areas where there is no water and soap you can use a recipe I gave below.
If you don’t like the DIY, you can use other conventional brands that sold in the market, it’s just not suitable for children as it dries out the sensitive skin of children. But let me tell you here, the most effective hand sanitizer is one that has at least 60 -70% alcohol content.
I prefer to use ethanol (most commonly used in hospital for wound healing or before injection) and not rubbing alcohol. (isopropyl alcohol).
Hand sanitizer natural and organic free of harmful chemicals. Or you can use essential oils yourself and it is best used for children.
You can use a carrier oil like fractionated coconut oil or aloe vera gel as a solvent.
Alcohol-based hand sanitizer spray 100ml
Ingredients:
1) 75g isopropyl alcohol
2) 22g sterile water
3) 2g germ destroyer
4) 1g aloe vera extract
As alcohol can kill 99.9% bacteria and viruses I prefer this recipe. To prevent dry skin, I put some aloe vera extract and add a germ destroyer blend from Plant Therapy. Please shake it first before use. Or you can add Cocamidopropyl betaine at 3% to solubilise the essential oil first before adding the water. Reduce the amount of water to 19ml if you add Cocamidopropyl betaine and make sure the purity of the alcohol more than 95%.
Click here to buy Germ Destroyer Roll-on from Shopee
For roll-on recipe
1) 10ml fractionated coconut oil
2) 6 drops of germ destroyer (2% dilution)
This recipe is 100% natural, may not be as effective as alcohol-based but it is effective in reducing bacteria and stop some viruses while not drying the skin. For me, this one is suitable for 2-10-year-olds.
So, do you need a hand sanitizer?
In my opinion, there should be at least one small hand sanitizer in the bag. Use it when you think you really need it. If you have soap and water, you don’t need a hand sanitizer. Whatever it is, cleanliness should always be taken care of. I hope this post helps ya.
Xoxo,
Alia Noor
