THE EFFECTIVENESS OF ALCOHOL GEL AND OTHER HAND-CLEANSING AGENTS AGAINST IMPORTANT NOSOCOMIAL PATHOGENS

We compared the effectiveness of alcohol gel with that of the traditional hand-cleansing agents in removing clinical strains of Acinetobacter baumannii, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Enterococcus faecalis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Candida albicans from artificially contaminated hands. The fingertips of 6 volunteers were contaminated with approximately 106 of microbial cells, and then were washed with: plain liquid soap, alcohol gel, 70 % ethyl alcohol (by weight), 10 % povidone-iodine liquid soap (PVP-I), and 4 % chlorhexidine gluconate detergent. The experiments were performed using a Latin square statistical design, with six 6 x 5 randomized blocks, and the results were estimated by ANOVA. The products reduced from 93.83 % (plain liquid soap) to 100 % (PVP-I) of the microbial population applied to the hands. In 4 of 6 test microorganisms analyzed, 10 % PVP-I, alcohol gel, 70 % ethyl alcohol, and 4 % chlorhexidine had significantly higher removal rates than plain liquid soap (P < 0.05). The results confirm the effectiveness of alcohol gel for hand hygiene and suggest that 10 % PVP-I, alcohol gel, 70 % ethyl alcohol, and 4% chlorhexidine may be more effective than plain liquid soap for removing A. baumannii, E. coli, E. faecalis, and C. albicans strains from heavily contaminated hands. Key words: alcohol gel, hand-cleansing agents, nosocomial pathogen