Sanitizer-associated systemic side effects in the era of COVID-19: a pharmacovigilance study

BACKGROUND: The practice of proper hand sanitization became of utmost importance and one of the best protective measures during the pandemic outbreak of COVID-19. However, misuse of disinfectants can be an overwhelming issue because of increasing demands, public panic, and unawareness, which can negatively affect human health and the environment. Therefore, we aimed to determine whether the outbreak was associated with increased reports of adverse events related to hand sanitizers through the data of adverse events reported to the pharmacovigilance database of the Food and Drug Administration Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS). FAERS database was analyzed for hand sanitizer reports including alcohol-based and alcohol-free formulations. RESULTS: Adverse events reports associated with hand sanitizers increased significantly by 2020 with variable severity degrees, noting that most serious cases were reported with alcohol-based sanitizers. CONCLUSION: Based on data mining of the FAERS database, we claim that the increased reports associated with alcohol hand sanitizer use deserve attention. However, FAER’s database has some limitations, such as case duplication and lack of a control group. Hence, further monitoring with more robust sources of data sources is critically needed.