The coronavirus 2019-nCoV is an enveloped virus that probably originate from bats and is currently further transmitted between humans. The exact route of transmission is still under investigation, but the small water droplets (aerosols) expelled during sneezing and coughing contain virus particles and the virus has been reported in faces of human patients.

Personal hygiene measures are the first step in preventing the spread of viruses. Next to that, it is important to regularly clean and disinfect surfaces that may be contaminated and thereby act as transmission route. This requires a disinfectant that is able to effectively kill the pathogens.

According to the new European Biocidal Product Regulations (BPR), a disinfectant is allowed to claim general veterinary virucidal efficacy when it is able to achieve a log 4 (10,000-fold) reduction in the most difficult to kill enteric cytopathic bovine orphan virus (ECBO). This virus was chosen by the BPR as the reference virus for determination of biocidal virucidal efficacies based on not only in-vitro tenacity of the viruses to disinfection, but also on the principles established by Noll and Youngner (1959)2, classifying viruses into groups based on their increasing susceptibility to disinfection. This allows an end consumer to conclude that a biocide has full virucidal efficacy for all veterinary viruses when it is able to show efficacy against ECBO virus.

Independently tested at the Dr. Brill Institute for Hygiene and Microbiology, Intra Multi-Des GA was able to reach this log 4 reduction within 30 minutes at a concentration of only 0.75% under cold (10 °C) and dirty farm conditions. The ability of Intra Multi-Des GA to inactivate the most resistant virus under challenging farm conditions means that it will also be able to inactivate the weaker enveloped coronavirus in a more clean (house/office/hospital) environment at room temperature.

Cleaning and disinfection to prevent the spread of viruses

Thoroughly clean the surfaces and materials to be disinfected with a suitable detergent and wash off the remaining cleaning agents with clean water. Remove excess liquid. Add a minimum of 0.75% Intra Multi-Des GA to water (75 ml to 10 liter water) and use a hand sprayer/pump sprayer to completely cover the area to be disinfected. Use enough liquid to ensure the surface to remain wet for at least the contact time of 30 minutes. Thoroughly rinse with drinking water afterwards. When the compatibility of the product with a specific surface is unknown, first test on a small area.

References

Belouzard, et al - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3397359/, CC BY 3.0,

https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=26447694

Noll H, Younger JS, Virus-lipid interactions: the mechanism of adsorption of lipophilic viruses to water insoluble polar lipids, Virology 1959;8: 319-343