Failure of Bland Soap Handwash to Prevent Hand Transfer of Patient Bacteria to Urethral Catheters

Abstract

Bland soap handwash was generally ineffective in preventing hand transfer of gram-negative bacteria to catheters following brief contact with a heavy-contamination patient source; alcohol hand rinse was generally effective.

Using Alcohol for Hand Antisepsis: Dispelling Old Myths

“…lfr20 In one study where healthcare workers contaminated their hands by touching a heavily colonized patient, hand antisepsis with a 70% isopropyl alcohol preparation prevented transfer of organisms from the hands of personnel to a catheter more effectively than hand washing with plain soap and water. 21 The bactericidal activity of alcohols is most likely due to their ability to denature proteins. 22 Alcohols are effective against most vegetative gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria.…”

Hand Hygiene

“…Ehrenkranz and colleagues 88 asked nurses to touch a patient's groin for 15 seconds as though they were taking a femoral pulse. The patient was known to be heavily colonized with Gram-negative bacilli.…”

“…present on intact areas of the skin of some patients can vary from 100 to 10 6 CFU/cm 2 . 86,88,92,98 Diabetics, patients undergoing dialysis for chronic renal failure, and those with chronic dermatitis are particularly likely to have skin areas colonized with S. aureus. [99][100][101][102][103][104][105][106] .…”

“…[82][83][84][85][86][87][88][89][90][91][92][93][94][95][96] The perineal or inguinal areas tend to be most heavily colonized, but the axillae, trunk, and upper extremities (including the hands) are also frequently colonized. 85,86,88,89,91,93,97 The number of organisms such as S. aureus, Proteus mirabilis, Klebsiella spp. and Acinetobacter spp.…”

Development of Nursing Home Infection Control

“…Examples include studies on hand contamination, 20 nosocomial transmission of gastroenteritis to laundry workers, 21 the definition of the importance of ill employees in nursing home outbreaks of viral gastroenteritis, 22 and the potential role of infected body fluids 13 or the environment. 15 There is a great need for studies on the effectiveness of specific infection control interventions, such as education, 23 handwashing, 24 or isolation. 16 Early attempts have been made to examine the overall efficacy of infection control programs in the LTCF 25 ; it would be ideal to have costefficiency data on infection control programs as well.…”