No, salt would probably not be an effective method. If you’re going for the hydrophilic method like that, you’re better off using honey, which was used at several different spots throughout history as a wound dressing.

While we can do much better nowadays, it does have some anti-microbial properties and could definitely be better than nothing.

If all you have is salt, you could try making a saturated saltwater solution and using that, but it’s not going to be as effective. These are not particularly good methods in general, as there are many, many pathogens that can resist them in a wide variety of ways. (like, viruses not necessarily needing water to still exist, for instance)

Catvid-23