Evaluation of the Antibacterial Efficacies of Hand wash Disinfectants on Pathogenic Bacterial Hand Swab Isolates of Health workers in Ilorin, Nigeria
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Date
2016
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Department of Biological Sciences Federal University of Technology, Minna.
Abstract
Hands are the most implicated in the transmission and spread of pathogens that causes
disease. Hand hygiene has been said to be the most important way to avoid these
infections. Hand washing with the use of hand wash is one of the ways to tackle the
barriers to efficient hand hygiene. This study assessed the efficacy of seven popular
brands of Hand washes (HW): DET, SAV, CHE, VIS, NIV, DOV and CAR (all abreviations
in full for the first time) against some clinically important bacterial pathogens:
Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Escherichia coli and Proteus mirabilis
recovered from hands of health care workers. The antibacterial susceptibility and
minimum inhibitory concentration of the hand washes was determined using the agar
diffusion and broth dilution method, respectively. Each brand showed different
activities against the isolates. VIS had the highest inhibitory effect against all organisms
it was tested on, while SAV was the least effective. S. aureus was the most susceptible
test organism, with the highest susceptibility to CAR (32.5 mm). P. mirabilis was most
resistant, with the highest resistance to DET (9.0 mm). Antibacterial activity of the hand
wash decreased with increased dilution. The minimum bactericidal concentration
(MBC) was obtained for all the hand washes when not diluted. It is, therefore,
recommended that the dilution of hand wash which is a commonly done in most
households, hospitals, offices and eateries should be discontinued as these products are
not active when diluted.
Description
Keywords
Hand wash,, Hand Hygiene,, pathogens,, Nosocomial infection