Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1259738
June 15–July 27, 2020 6 Working Nurse l WorkingNurse.com ON THE QUICK Nursing & Healthcare News I t seems the pandemic's mount- ing death toll has only embold- ened the opportunists claiming their products can prevent or cure COVID-19. The FDA is asking healthcare professionals and the public to remain vigilant for fraudu- lent COVID-19 products and their adverse effects. Latest Warnings Since Working Nurse's last report on this topic, the FDA's colorfully named Operation Quack Hack has issued dozens more warnings, and sought court injunctions and pre- ferred criminal charges related to bogus COVID-19 products. As before, many of the fraudu- lent claims involve dietary supple- ments and essential oils, but sever- al recent warnings concern prod- ucts of great importance to health- care workers: hand sanitizers. The FDA has warned two manu- facturers of non-alcohol-based hand sanitizers, Durisan and Prefense, to stop claiming that their products protect against COVID-19. Stick to Alcohol-Based The CDC's COVID-19 hand hygiene guidelines for healthcare profes- sionals recommend using alcohol- based hand-sanitizers containing at least 60 percent ethanol or 70 per- cent isopropanol. CDC recommen- dations do not extend to alcohol- free products using benzalkonium chloride, the active ingredient in Durisan and Preferense. According to the guidance, "CDC does not have a recommend- ed alternative" to alcohol-based hand rubs and warns that "available evidence indicates benzalkonium chloride has less reliable activity against certain bacteria and viruses than either of the alcohols." The FDA says the manufactur- ers of Durisan and Prefense haven't provided any evidence that these products are safe and effec- tive in preventing disease. (As Working Nurse reported back in February, the FDA has also cautioned the maker of alcohol- based Purell about making unsup- ported disease-prevention claims, although the CDC still recommends alcohol-based hand rubs like Purell for clinical hand hygiene.) No 24-Hour Protection FDA officials are also unhappy about the manufacturers' other unsupported claim: that a single application of these alcohol-free hand sanitizers provides 24-hour protection against pathogens. Such claims, warns Donald Ashley, director of the FDA Center for Drug Evaluation and Research's Office of Compliance, "may give users the false impression that they need not rigorously adhere to inter- ventions such as social distancing and exercising good hygienic prac- tices … thereby prolonging the pan- demic and increasing its associated morbidity and mortality." Asking for Your Help By now, there are so now many fraudulent COVID-19 products that it's hard for the FDA to keep track of them all. If you see suspicious online ads about COVID-19 products or hear about them from patients, col- leagues or family members, you should report them via www.fda.gov. The FDA is also asking healthcare professionals to keep an eye out for possible adverse effects related to bogus COVID-19 products and report them to the MedWatch Adverse Event Reporting program. WN FDA's Operation "Quack Hack" Crackdown on fraudulent COVID-19 products continues For direct links to the websites cited, find these articles at WorkingNurse.com BEWARE All hand sanitizers are not equally effective.