It Kills Germs For Up To 6 Hours. Can It Wipe Out Ebola?

NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO  by Emily Sohn                                                              Feb. 27, 2015

Clean hands go a long way toward preventing the spread of many illnesses, including Ebola. But finding the right hand-wash to impede deadly germs is tricky.

           A health worker in Liberia washes up after leaving a clinic's Ebola isolation area. Tommy Trenchard for NPR

A squirt of alcohol-based sanitizer like Purell kills or denatures many microbes on contact. In the case of bacteria, essentially poking holes in their cell membranes, causing them to shrivel up like water balloons. For viruses, the mechanism is not well-understood. But alcohol evaporates after 15 seconds, allowing for rapid recontamination...

Chlorine is one of the most effective disinfectants against all microbes, including Ebola, according to Paul Roepe, an infectious disease specialist at Georgetown University. But it too stops working soon after it dries (as does ordinary soap). And it can irritate the skin with repeated use, even in the 0.05 percent diluted chlorine solution used at Ebola treatment centers for hand-washing.

Now there's a new product creating buzz in Ebola circles. It's called Zylast, and its makers claim that it starts killing bacteria and viruses within 15 seconds of application and works for up to six hours. And it's reportedly gentle on the skin.

USAID was impressed enough to name Zylast one of three initial winners in its recent Fighting Ebola Grand Challenge.
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http://www.npr.org/blogs/goatsandsoda/2015/02/27/389251809/it-kills-germs-for-up-to-six-hours-can-it-wipe-out-ebola