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Abstract
Background:Hand hygiene has being considered as one of the primary measures to improve standards and practice for hospital care and to minimize the transmission of nosocomial pathogens. There is substantial evidence that incidence of hospital acquired infections is reduced by applying hand antisepsis. Regarding hand hygiene and public concern, hand washing has revealed that 85% of the observed adults wash their hands after using public toilets.Objective:To compare the efficacy of hand rubbing with an alcohol based solution versus conventional hand washing with antiseptic and non-antiseptic soaps in reducing bacterial counts using different hand hygiene techniques.Methods:Ninety-three volunteers took part in this study; 57 from Tripoli Medical Center (TMC); 16 from school; 11 from bank; and 9 from office. All volunteers performed six hand hygiene techniques, immediately before and after a volunteer practice activity: hand washing with non-antiseptic soap for 10 and 30 second (s); hand washing with antiseptic soap for 10, 30 or 60 s; and alcohol-based hand rub. A total of 864 specimens were taken: 432 before and 432 after volunteer's hand hygiene. The fingertips of the dominant hand for each volunteer were pressed on to agar for culture before and after each hand hygiene technique. Plates were incubated at 37oC, and colony-forming units were counted after 48 hours and pathogenic bacteria were identified.Results:Results showed that 617 specimens (71.41%) were positive for bacterial growth. 301 (48.78%) were from TMC, 118 (19.12%) were from office; 107 (14.34%) were from school and 91 (14.75%) were from bank.Conclusion:Both antiseptic and non–antiseptic soaps did not work properly in reducing bacterial counts of worker’s hands at all places of study, but significantly improved by an application of alcohol based gel.
Highlights
Hand washing is the first line of defence and is one of the oldest methods of preventing the spread of disease
The results have shown that hand rubbing with an alcohol-gel is more effective than hand washing with either antiseptic soap or non-antiseptic soap in reducing bacterial contamination of volunteer's hands
The results of this study show that hand washing with antiseptic soap was at least as ineffective as washing with non-antiseptic soap
Summary
Hand washing is the first line of defence and is one of the oldest methods of preventing the spread of disease. Hand washing is a process of hand cleaning using water and/or soap for the purpose of physically or mechanically removing dirt and organic material. Neglecting washing hands with soap and clean running water will lead to spread many types of diseases. Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) [2], revealed that almost 50% of all foodborne illness outbreaks occur due to failing to wash or insufficiently washing hands. A review from 1975 to 1998 showed that unwashed hands of infected food workers are responsible for transmitting pathogens on food and resulting in 93% of the foodborne disease outbreaks [2, 3]. Regarding hand hygiene and public concern, hand washing has revealed that 85% of the observed adults wash their hands after using public toilets
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