EMPOWERING THE COMMUNITY TO OVERCOME COVID-19 PANDEMIC IN TAIWAN AND THE SCIENCE - AN EXAMPLE OF ELECTROLYZED WATER

Abstract

Serve Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV2) outbreak from the December 2019 in China has brought over 220 million infected cases and caused over 4.55 million of death. COVID-19 pandemic till now destroy the human health, communication and economics, uncountable loss and huge influence greatly impact this world. In the past period, many cities were locked down in most countries. The status significantly change the life style and business condition. Available alert systems for the prevention of COVID-19 infection are very critical for a country, and reduce the threat to life. Fortunately, Taiwan empowers the management and control of immigration to stop the outbreak of COVID-19 effectively. No lock down or any influence for this society until the middle of May 2021. A missing point from the flight crews brought a wave of local transmission on 15th May. The highest infected cases were 550 per day (total population of Taiwan is 23 million). Fortunately, this outbreak is well controlled under the self-awareness of all citizens, wearing face mask, sanitary behavior promotion (proper cleaning and washing hands), vaccination, and quick and correct pandemic investigation and proper isolation successfully reduce the infected cases to 1-3 per day in two months. Till today, 16103 infected cases and 839 cases are found (15th September). From the past experience, community empowering is very important to prevent the outbreak and continuous transmission of COVID-19. From the science view point, except vaccine, some technology materials could show great potential on this pandemic. Electrolyzed water (EW) is a new type of cleaning and disinfecting agent obtained by electrolysis with dilute sodium chloride solution, it has low cost and harm to the human body and is also environmentally friendly. The anode produces acid electrolyzed water (AEW) and is mainly used to inhibit bacterial growth and disinfect. The cathode provides basic electrolyzed water (BEW), which is implemented to clean the surface of objects. EW is a powerful multifunctional antibacterial agent with a wide range of applications in the medicine, agriculture, and food industry. Studies in vitro and in vivo show that it has an inhibitory effect on pathogenic bacteria and viruses. Therefore, EW is used for the prevention of chronic diseases, and in recent years it has been discovered can be used to against infectious viruses. Not only animal experiments, but also clinical trials have also obtained more and more relevant research results, such as accelerating wound healing, oral health care, anti-obesity, lowering blood sugar, anti-cancer and anti-infectious viral diseases, etc. This chapter will summarize the application of EW in treating bacteria, viruses and the prevention of infectious and chronic diseases.