Can mouthwash reduce corona spread?

Before anyone rushes to the supermarket or pharmacy to stock up on mouthwash: it’s all about the first results of a major investigation. They have not yet been checked by other scientists. There is also a clinical study in humans to see what the effective impact of mouthwash on the concentration of the coronavirus in the saliva of subjects.

But the results would be “promising”. The scientists did their first tests in a laboratory where the same conditions were created as in the nose and throat of humans. They used common brand mouthwash with 0.07 percent Cetylpyridinium Chloride (CPC), such as Listerine. This antimicrobial and antiviral substance can penetrate the wall of a cell and cause it to leak, eventually killing it. W.ate pale? As much as 99.9 percent of the virus particles had disappeared within 30 seconds.

Saliva

A 12-week clinical study will now follow at the University Hospital of Wales to see if mouthwash effectively reduces the number of virus particles in the saliva of humans. Our mouth is full of nooks and crannies and many other substances are secreted that can also react. The results of that study are expected in early 2021.

Professor David Thomas – who is leading the research – insists that this clinical trial is necessary before any definitive conclusions can be drawn. “We first need to find out if the effect in the lab matches what we see in humans,” he tells British news channel Sky News.

It will also be investigated how long the effect of rinsing with mouthwash lasts. A previous study in a small group of patients showed, according to the researchers, that the virus load – the number of virus particles in a human – was reduced in the mouth for up to six hours.

Droplets

The coronavirus spreads to a large extent via droplets of saliva and secretions from the nose (when talking, coughing and sneezing). They can contain virus particles before, during and after the acute phase of the disease, but they also occur in asymptomatic patients. Thus, reducing the number of virus particles in the mouth could help to slow down the spread of the virus.

The researchers do insist that mouthwash is not a cure for Covid-19 – the virus that causes the disease simply remains in the rest of an infected person’s body – and offers no guarantee that it can prevent infection. Mouthwash could complement other protective measures, such as social distance, face masks and washing your hands to prevent transmission.

Previous research has already shown that CPC works against the flu virus.

Last month, the Penn State College of Medicine also released results of laboratory research that indicated mouthwash can wipe out coronaviruses. The same applies to research by the Ruhr-Universität Bochum, the results of which were published in August. But even those investigations still have to follow clinical tests.

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