Abstract
Hand hygiene, particularly hand sanitizing, is essential in reducing infectious disease transmission. The recent outbreak of Ebola in Nigeria both increased public awareness of the practice of hand sanitizing and resulted in the introduction of new products to the Nigerian market. This study set out to explore the actual antibacterial activity of these products against key clinical isolates using both dilution and diffusion susceptibility tests methods. Results showed higher inhibitory activity of the products to Klebsiella pneumoniae and Staphylococcus aureus than Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Overall the only local product tested had the least inhibitory activity. In general however, the sanitizers showed good activities, with inhibition of bacteria noted at concentrations as low as 25%. Products tested in this study showed higher zones of inhibition than previously reported, indicating their overall effectiveness. The variations in diffusion and dilution results highlight the effect of texture of the sanitizing product on testing methods and point at a need to properly assess if this could perhaps have any effect in real time on inhibitory activities. The hand sanitizing products tested in this study are suitable in disease prevention. However, regulatory bodies may need to focus on product texture until the effect of this on activity is determined.Keywords: Sanitizer, Nigeria, dilution, MIC, bacteriocidal
Highlights
Hand hygiene is well known as one of the most significant of activities essential for the reduction of transmission of infectious diseases, in hospitals (Pittet et al, 2006, Zapka et al, 2017)
Hand hygiene generally refers to different methods of eliminating or killing microorganisms which may be present on hands, by either hand washing or sanitizing
This changed by the early 2000s, when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a guideline recommending that alcohol-based hand rub (ABHR) be routinely used for decontaminating hands (CDC 2002)
Summary
Hand hygiene is well known as one of the most significant of activities essential for the reduction of transmission of infectious diseases, in hospitals (Pittet et al, 2006, Zapka et al, 2017). This study set out to explore the antibacterial activities of a number of hand sanitizers sold in Port Harcourt, Nigeria against bacteria of clinical importance using both dilution and diffusion susceptibility methods. Test Products: Three different alcohol based hand sanitizers were analysed in this study.
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