How does hypochlorous acid inactivate viruses?

Question

I was reading how bleach was used very widely as a disinfecting agent during the 2014 West Africa ebola outbreak and am interested in the mechanisms with which hypochlorous acid inactivates viruses. Most of the studies I could find only focused on its activity against bacteria. I know viruses tend to be much more difficult to inactivate than cells as they're somewhat simpler and aren't really alive.

Answer 1

Remember that a virus is nothing more than genetic material wrapped in a protein coat. The protein coat protects the virus from environmental conditions and enables it to replicate inside living organisms. When the viruses interact with hypochlorous acid, the hypochlorite ion, ^-OCl, is able to modify the virus' protein coat in such a way that the protein loses its structure and aggregates, or forms clumps of protein with other viruses. This is what causes hypochlorous acid to be a disinfectant agent.