Since mid-December 2024, reports of human metapneumovirus (hMPV) outbreaks in China have captured global attention, with rising cases now observed around Asia, specifically in India, Malaysia, and Kazakhstan. In Malaysia alone, 327 cases of hMPV infections were reported in 2024 – a 45% rise from the 225 cases in 2023. The silver lining? hMPV is...
In 2021, the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Authority (NPRA) established regulatory guidelines for surface disinfectants to undergo voluntary registration for the first time. Now, after 3 years and multiple minor amendments...
Did you know we are now one of the approved laboratories by Association for Applied Hygiene (VAH) in Germany? If you are thinking of penetrating the disinfection market in Germany, come learn about VAH certification and its efficacy requirements with us. What is VAH certification? VAH certification is a unique quality mark for disinfectant...
Have you ever gotten flabbergasted by your product’s efficacy results? Research and development can be a long and strenuous process and when you finally get to the last stage of testing but the product does not perform the way you expected, it can be very disappointing. Our experts at TECOLAB are no strangers to that...
The bloom in the disinfectant market has conceivably led to the need to develop disinfectants or biocidal products displaying increasingly unique and enhanced antimicrobial claims to dominate the market. Through this, manufacturers seek out a variety of tests to substantiate more and more claims for their products which might be challenging yet rewarding and, in...
What is EN 14885? Being a part of the Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) field, EN 14885 has become our holy grail, the one thing we all look to when it comes to bringing a new biocide or chemical disinfectant into the world. In other words, EN 14885 is the guideline for disinfectant efficacy test...
“Hey, Robin, you know, most of our competitors already have a coronavirus claim on their products like us, and I’m not quite sure what can we do to stand out more.”—During the COVID-19 virus outbreak, most disinfectant manufacturers elevate their products’ uniqueness either by reducing the kill time to just mere seconds or to test...
“Who would have known zombies existed amongst bacteria as well? *cues eerie music*”—Just as how you see it in the movies, a bio-engineered virus causes humans to turn into a never ending brain-eating walking machine. A popular biocidal metal used for centuries, silver has the ability to turn bacteria into, well, zombies. Silver, in its...
“Did you know that WHO estimated that 1.1 million deaths that occurred in 2019 were due to viral hepatitis infections?”—We have all heard of hepatitis but how much do we really know about it? Hepatitis is an inflammatory condition of the liver that is mostly caused by viral infections from hepatitis viruses. There are 5...
“Hey, Marcel! TECOLAB mentioned to me that there is a new standard out for testing surface disinfectants. It’s called EN 17387. Have you heard of it?”—Yes, he’s right, we’ve got a new kid on the block now. But before getting into the new test method, we’d like to revisit the current standard and/or practice that...