Abstract: In response to the threat of global pandemics and bacterial species becoming increasingly resistant to antibiotic attack, this invention provides systems and methods for reducing the infectivity of bacteria and viruses in the human body by introducing onto the human body or into the human body or onto personal protective equipment or any combination thereof aqueous solutions containing a combination of solutes that simultaneously chemically modify bacterial and viral proteins so as to disrupt their normal function and disrupt the physical integrity of bacterial and viral lipid membranes by providing destabilizing pH, disulfide bond reduction capability, lipid membrane disruption (detergent) capability, hyperosmotic stress and interference with the binding of viral or bacterial proteins to cellular surface proteins.