It’s a story all too many people know: You wake up with a stomachache and soon find yourself stuck in the bathroom, battling nausea, stomach cramps, vomiting and diarrhea. Within a day or two, everyone in the house is showing the same symptoms. These fast-spreading bouts of gastrointestinal distress are often caused by norovirus, colloquially known as the “stomach bug” or “stomach flu.”
Norovirus is highly contagious and the leading cause of foodborne illness in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The virus spreads easily through direct contact with an infected person or with contaminated surfaces, even after the infected person’s symptoms have passed. Though cases tend to rise in fall and winter when people gather indoors in close quarters, anyone can contract norovirus at any time of the year.
Neutralizing, or “killing,” any norovirus that ends up on people’s hands or on surfaces helps to curb the spread of the illness. So what’s the best way to kill norovirus?
Washing your hands with soap and water is the best way to get rid of the virus, Dr. Robert Hopkins Jr., medical director of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases, told Live Science. Cleaning hard surfaces, such as countertops, with bleach-based solutions can also neutralize the virus and thus prevent it from spreading to others.
Related: Here’s the best way to protect yourself from a norovirus outbreak
However, one common cleanser doesn’t work against norovirus: alcohol-based hand sanitizer. That’s because alcohol-based cleansers are only effective against certain types of viruses, known as “enveloped” viruses.
All viruses contain genetic material — namely, DNA or RNA — wrapped in a protein coating called a capsid. Some viruses, such as the culprits behind influenza and COVID-19, also have a protective outer “envelope” called a phospholipid bilayer, which is similar to the membrane that surrounds human cells. Without this envelope, these viruses can’t attach to or infect host cells. Alcohol-based cleansers neutralize viruses by interfering with that outer envelope, rendering the virus inert.
But alcohol-based hand sanitizers, cleaners and cleansing wipes don’t work against non-enveloped viruses, such as norovirus. Non-enveloped viruses don’t have or need a phospholipid bilayer, and they can survive much longer on surfaces without invading a host cell….
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