Targeted Hygiene and Coronavirus
For the last three years I have been working with IFH and RSPH to promote and advocate targeted hygiene to protect the public. A couple of years ago we published a white paper Too Clean or Not Too Clean, making the case for targeted hygiene in the home and everyday life as the most effective framework for preventing the spread of infection and supporting a healthy microbiome.
The targeted hygiene approach is to focus on key situations when we are vulnerable to infection or likely pass on germs to others. In our white paper we produced details how we can break the chain of infection to prevent pathogenic germs from spreading.
This paper was written in conjunction with thirty respected hygiene experts and we all agreed that targeted hygiene would have the biggest impact on improving health and reduce the burden on our health providers.
Little did we know then just how soon targeted hygiene would become the key weapon in our fight for survival against Covid-19.
The advice we are now getting from the government to wash our hands and to clean surfaces we touch regularly. Social distancing is also a form of targeted hygiene.
No test method protocols currently exist for Covid-19, but there are products we can use that will help.
Existing antimicrobial products have viral data which is useful.
For example, Biomaster Antimicrobial Fabric Spray is a product we have been selling for many years to businesses such as hotel chains to help with pre-emptive treatment of soft furnishings to control Norovirus outbreaks.
The product has been tested in UK and US laboratories and is proven reduce the level of viruses by over 99% in under 1 hour (*) and provide durable (**) protection.
Although we don’t yet have any Covid-19 data, the microbiology would suggest that as it is also an envelope virus, then Biomaster could be effective.
* NOT a disinfectant which works in under 1 minutes.
** Re-apply every 3 months
Dr Lisa Ackerley has been a Chartered Environmental Health Practitioner for over 35 years and is Visiting Professor of Environmental Health at the University of Salford and Professorial Fellow of the Royal Society for Public Health. Dr Lisa is passionate about Improving consumer awareness of hygiene and public health issues. She is an expert in the commercial food safety arena, working as an expert witness for food law and practice and is regularly called upon to comment on public hygiene issues in the media. She also appears regularly in the media on radio and news channels to give more detailed advice on how to follow government guidelines to protect ourselves from COVID- 19, Previously she has appeared on prime time consumer
shows such as Watchdog, Rogue Restaurants and Holiday Hit Squad and Rip off Britain. Dr Lisa is also a Trustee and Deputy Chairman of the IFH, the prime source of scientific information on UK home hygiene. More recently she has been appointed as Food Safety Adviser to UK Hospitality.
← Back to blog
