Alcohol Wipes Market

Infection control is an integral part of dental practice, particularly in ensuring that surfaces are clean and potentially pathogenic microorganisms, including the bacteria that cause tuberculosis and MRSA infections are eliminated. Surfaces should be wiped down between patients with a high quality disinfectant. Alcohol wipes are usually the preferred format in a busy dental practice as they are convenient to use, disposable and require less storage space than sprays. An ideal disinfectant should have a high inactivating capacity for a wide range of viruses, including HIV and hepatitis, as well as being effective against bacteria, including tuberculosis. It should be safe to use and suitable for frequent application. Research suggests that alcohol wipes are capable of destroying the widest range of microbial contamination. Alcohol wipes are virucidal against ‘enveloped’ viruses, such as HIV and hepatitis B and against the ‘non-enveloped’ viruses, such as poliovirus, rhinoviruses and hepatitis A.

On the basis of end user, the market is segmented into personal & household and commercial. The commercial segment dominated the market in 2020. Aseptic manufacturing can be described as a multiple step process by which many materials, equipments, medicinal products and containers are transferred into an environmentally controlled workspace to produce a sterile product. Items used for product preparation usually start with some surface bioburden and as such need to be disinfected, usually by a combination of spraying with alcohol and wiping prior to and during transfer(s) into the isolator cabinet where the final product is manufactured. In hospital aseptic units, high quality assurance standards have been introduced to maximize patient safety. Examples of typical aseptic products would include intravenous (IV) cytotoxic drugs, trans-parenteral nutrition (TPN) and central intravenous additive (CIVA). Transfer disinfection is usually based on a combination of 70% alcohol sprays and sterile wipes.

North America accounted for the largest share of the global alcohol wipes market in 2020. Moreover, Asia is likely to show lucrative growth during the forecast period.

The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic has risen to be a significant global public health concern and led to extensive use of hand disinfectants given its contagious nature. Given the dangers imposed by this disease, the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the United States has promoted and encouraged hand hygiene through hand washing or use of hand sanitizer. Hand disinfectants are commercially available in various types and forms such as anti-microbial soaps, water-based or alcohol-based hand sanitizers, most often used in hospital settings. Different types of delivery systems are also formulated for instance, rubs, foams, or wipes. The World Health Organisation recommends alcohol-based hand sanitizer in line with the proven advantages of their rapid action and a broad spectrum of microbicidal activity offering protection against bacteria and viruses. To date, most effective hand sanitizer products are alcohol-based formulations containing 62% to 95% of alcohol as it is capable of denaturing the proteins of microbes and inactivating viruses.