Which Commercial Sanitizers Work Against Norovirus?

Which Commercial Sanitizers Work Against Norovirus?

The American Society for Microbiology recently published a study about the efficacy of commercial surface sanitizers against Norovirus on formica surfaces with and without inclusion of a wiping step. The authors found that commonly used surface sanitizers often lack activity against human noroviruses (hNoVs).

Human noroviruses (hNoVs) are the leading cause of acute gastroenteritis and food-borne disease worldwide. Noroviruses are difficult to inactivate, being recalcitrant to sanitizers and disinfectants commonly used by the retail food sector.

This comparative study demonstrates the variability in anti-hNoV activity of representative surface sanitizers, even those allowed to make label claims based on the cultivable surrogate, feline calicivirus (FCV). It also highlights the importance of wiping in the process of sanitization, which significantly improves product efficacy through the action of physical removal of surface microbes.

Human noroviruses (hNoVs) are the most common cause of diarrheal illness around the world, with 684 million cases occurring annually (1). Recent estimates of the burden of hNoV illness suggest that this virus group is responsible for over 200,000 deaths each year (1) with an annual global economic impact of $4.2 billion in direct health care costs and $60.3 billion in societal costs (2). In the United States, hNoVs are the most common cause of food-borne illness, with an estimated 5.5 million cases annually (3). Immunity to hNoVs is short-lived (4), and no licensed vaccines that provide long-term protection are currently available.

The differences in results between the traditional surface assays done using ASTM methods and newly developed wiping assays suggest that physical removal through wiping is a major contributor to efficacy when included as part of the disinfection process. Further, the high concentrations of virus remaining on the paper towel 5 min after wiping with some of the products raises concerns for transfer and cross-contamination potential by the used paper towel when using formulations that do not demonstrate significant anti-hNoV activity.

A recently developed alcohol-based product was able to inactivate about 99.9% of the virus without a wiping step. When wiping was incorporated, the combination resulted in elimination of human norovirus from the contaminated Formica surface. It should be noted that although ethanol is listed as the active ingredient for this product, it really is the product formulation as a whole driving the efficacy.

The quaternary ammonium-based compound (QAC) did not show any real anti-noroviral activity against the virus strains tested. This is important because the vast majority of the restaurant and retail sector in the U.S. routinely uses QAC-based products to sanitize tables in dining areas.

For more information visit:  https://journals.asm.org/
Lee Ann Jaykus, William Neal Reynolds Professor of Food Microbiology at NC State, https://www.ncsu.edu/
GoJo Industries, GoJo.com