Abstract
This study was designed to determine the colonization of the in-use hand washing soaps in hospital settings. It is a comparative cross-sectional research in a surgical specialties and Baghdad teaching hospital in Baghdad, Iraq. Swabs from surfaces of bar soaps and from liquid soaps via their applicator tips; at the sinks of toilets of hospital staff and working rooms of the wards were taken in January 2008. Conventional microbiologic methods were used for culture of the swabs and identification of the isolates. Colonization was detected 60% and 15.9% in bars and liquid forms respectively. And this lead to the conclusion that bar soaps could be colonized with microorganisms excessively. Liquid hand washing soaps are more appropriate in hospital environments. Proper using conditions of the hand washing items should be defined in health care settings.
 Keywords: Bar soap, liquid soap, pseudomonas aeruginosa, nosocomial infections.
Highlights
Hand carriage of bacteria is an important route of transmission of infection between patients or from the health care worker to the patient.[1,2,3,4,5,6] Hand hygiene has been considered to be the most important tool in nosocomial infections control
The mechanical action of washing and rinsing removes most of the transient microorganism present.1012.Health care workers wash their hands in two ways: (a) the social hand wash, which is the cleaning of hands with plain, non-medicated bar or liquid soap and water for removal of dirt, soil, and various organic substances; (b) the hygienic or antiseptic hand wash, which is the cleaning of hands with antimicrobial or medicated soap and water
Pseudomonas aeruginosa (41%) was the most frequent isolated bacteria followed by Escherichia coli (13.6%) and Acinetobacter baumanii (11.4%).From liquid soaps, 6 microorganisms were detected at only 7 tips (15.9%) of the total 44 containers
Summary
Hand carriage of bacteria is an important route of transmission of infection between patients or from the health care worker to the patient.[1,2,3,4,5,6] Hand hygiene has been considered to be the most important tool in nosocomial infections control. The microbial flora of the skin of hands consists of resident and transient microorganisms. In contrast to the resident microorganisms, the transient microorganisms found on the hands of health care personnel are more frequently implicated as the source of nosocomial infections. Hand washing with plain soap is effective in removing most transient microrganisms.[7,8,9] The mechanical action of washing and rinsing removes most of the transient microorganism present.1012.Health care workers wash their hands in two ways: (a) the social hand wash, which is the cleaning of hands with plain, non-medicated bar or liquid soap and water for removal of dirt, soil, and various organic substances; (b) the hygienic or antiseptic hand wash, which is the cleaning of hands with antimicrobial or medicated soap and water. Much studies have been written and debated regarding the use of bar versus liquid skin cleansers in relation to infection control.[7,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22] In this study, the aim was to detect and compare bacterial contamination of soap bars and liquid soaps
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