Ask an infection preventionist to name the pathogen that keeps them up at night and Clostridioides difficile is usually on the shortest of short lists. C. diff drives severe, sometimes recurring intestinal infections, spreads through healthcare environments with unusual persistence, and has a defense mechanism that neutralizes the most common hygiene tool in the building.
Why C. diff is different
The organism's advantage is the spore. When conditions turn hostile, C. diff encases itself in a dormant, armored form that can survive on surfaces for months and shrug off stresses that kill ordinary bacteria. This is the well-documented weakness of alcohol-based hand sanitizer: alcohol does not reliably kill C. diff spores, which is why standard infection-control guidance directs healthcare workers to wash with soap and water — physically removing spores rather than chemically killing them — when caring for patients with C. diff.
In other words, the dispenser on the wall, the one staff use forty times a shift, is largely blind to one of the most consequential organisms in the facility.
What the Covexall testing showed
Covexall, the water-based, alcohol-free hand sanitizer distributed by American Sanitary Products, was tested by a leading microbiological testing facility in kill-rate studies that specifically included the spore stage of C. difficile. The results, documented in the 2022 Covexall white paper: complete kill of the test organisms at both the 30-second and 60-second exposures — spores included, with a greater than 5.2 log reduction over 30 seconds.
The same study series ran the product against eleven bacterial species. A 30-second exposure achieved complete kill in nine of the eleven, and 60 seconds achieved complete kill in all eleven. The white paper's authors called the action against C. diff spores particularly remarkable, and that is not marketing enthusiasm — spore kill is the hardest test a sanitizer can face.
The mechanism behind it
Covexall does not rely on alcohol's evaporating chemistry. Its copper-infused magnesium hydroxide microplatelets attack the pathogen's protective envelope directly, by chemical and mechanical means, aided by benzalkonium chloride. Because the platelets survive each kill rather than evaporating, the product continues working after it dries, with independent laboratory testing confirming continued antimicrobial activity up to four hours after application.
What this means for a facility
No hand product replaces environmental cleaning, contact precautions, or handwashing protocols where they are required. But for hospitals, long-term care, correctional facilities, and any environment where C. diff is a live concern, the laboratory record gives Covexall a role alcohol cannot fill: a sanitizer whose testing includes the one organism the standard dispenser is known to miss.
Covexall is a topical hand sanitizer for external use only. Performance figures referenced in this article are drawn from the 2022 Covexall white paper and the independent laboratory studies cited in it, including testing conducted at Arizona State University's Biodesign Institute. Continued antimicrobial activity lasts up to four hours after application.
