Efficacy of Hand rubbing with alcohol based solution versus standard hand washing with soap and water in a Tertiary care Hospital in The North Iran

Abstract

Nosocomial infections have a growing trend and are a serious threat to the health system. The aim of this work was to compare the effectiveness of hand rubbing with alcohol-based solution and standard hand washing with soap and water on transient flora of hands in intensive care unit (ICU) staff. This cross-sectional study was done at Razi Hospital, Rasht, Iran between March to August 2016. Nurses who were willing to participate were included. In each group (alcohol group, typical soap group), 50 health cares were considered randomly (a total of 100 health cares in two groups). Since 4 samples were taken from each care (two samples before work and two samples after work, both of which were taken before and after washing), a total of 400 samples were analyzed for microbial status. A total of 15 nurses (all were female) with 100 samples were included. The most rate of colony count before hands washing and operation was 45.8±39.99 CFU/ml, and the least rate after hand washing with alcohol after the operation was 15.07±31.87CFU/ml. There was a significant relationship between colony count and the measured time. There was also a significant relationship between alcohol and soap groups,as the reduction in the alcohol group was 20.58±54.4 and in soap group was 2.66 ± 48.17 (p=0.001).Our study showed that alcohol significantly decreased colony counts of staffs’ hands after operation in intensive care unit, whereas no significant differences were seen with soap solution.