Do alchohol based hand sanitizers (such as Germ-X) kill viruses as well as bacteria?

Question

All I could find on the back of the label was "kills 99 percent of germs and bacteria". Aren't bacteria germs? And aren't viruses germs? Then why did they say germs and bacteria? I'm very confused.

Answer 1

Viruses are not germs and they are not bacteria either.

They are bits of DNA or RNA and are not alive.

Now...viruses come in 2-forms: ones with envelopes and ones without. Think of the envelope as the equivalent of the cell membrane.

Anyway, if the virus you are talking about is enveloped (namely, has a cell membrane), then yes, alcohol will deactivate it. If it doesn't, it won't.

Keep in mind that my answer is dependent on the strength of the alcohol being used and the length of time the virus is exposed to the alcohol. A "quick wipe" might not do enough damage to all the virus particles to have any negative effect.

Answer 2

lol. well those companies play with the term 'germs and bacteria,' it's used very loosely based on what they define 'germs'

not all bacteria are bad for you, the goods ones live on you skin normally and take up space so bad ones cant attach itself on you and cause disease.

virus cant be killed beause they are 'not alive'. they only start their life cycle when they enter a host (human/animal/bacteria) cell. once inside they reproduce only when the host's body makes a copy of it's cell.