Effectiveness of hand-cleansing agents for removing Acinetobacter baumannii strain from contaminated hands.
BACKGROUND
The effectiveness of hand-cleansing agents (plain liquid soap, 70% ethyl alcohol, 10% povidone-iodine, and 4% chlorhexidine gluconate) for removing a hospital strain of Acinetobacter baumannii from artificially contaminated hands of 5 volunteers was studied.


METHODS
The experiments were performed by using a Latin square statistical design, with two 5 x 4 randomized blocks, and the results were estimated by ANOVA. In the first and second blocks, the fingertips of the volunteers were contaminated with approximately 10(3) colony-forming units (light contamination hand) and 10(6) colony-forming units (heavy contamination hand), respectively.


RESULTS
In the first block, all products tested were effective, almost completely removing the microbial population of A baumannii artificially applied to the hands. In the second block, the use of hand-cleansing agents resulted in 91.36% (4% chlorhexidine), 92.33% (liquid soap), 98.49% (10% povidone-iodine), and 98.93% (70% ethyl alcohol) reduction in counts of A baumannii cells applied to the fingertips. The ethyl alcohol and povidone-iodine had significantly higher removal rates than plain soap and chlorhexidine (P <.05).


CONCLUSIONS
These results suggest that 70% ethyl alcohol and 10% povidone-iodine may be the most effective hand-cleansing agents for removing A baumannii strain from heavily contaminated hands (10(6) colony-forming units/fingertip).
Cardoso
C L
CL
Department of Clinical Analyses, Laboratory of Microbiology, State University of Maringá, Paraná, Brazil.
Pereira
H H
HH
Zequim
J C
JC
Guilhermetti
M
M
D000150:Acinetobacter / Q000187:drug effects*; D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000891:Anti-Infective Agents, Local / Q000494:pharmacology*; D002710:Chlorhexidine / Q000031:analogs & derivatives / Q000494:pharmacology; D015169:Colony Count, Microbial; D000431:Ethanol / Q000494:pharmacology; D005260:Female; D006235:Hand Disinfection / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011206:Povidone-Iodine / Q000494:pharmacology; D012915:Soaps / Q000494:pharmacology
D000891:Anti-Infective Agents, Local; D012915:Soaps; D000431:Ethanol; D011206:Povidone-Iodine; C010882:chlorhexidine gluconate; D002710:Chlorhexidine