Impact of Finger Rings on Transmission of Bacteria During Hand Contact

Abstract

Wearing finger rings increases the carriage rate of nonfermentative gram-negative bacteria and Enterobacteriaceae on the hands of healthcare workers. However, no statistically significant differences in the incidence of transmission of nonfermentative gram-negative bacteria or Enterobacteriaceae were detected between the healthcare workers who wore rings and those who did not.

Preventing Transmission of Multidrug-Resistant Pathogens in the Intensive Care Unit

“…Although carriage may be transient, many organisms can survive long enough to be spread to the ICU environment or directly to patients. Personnel can have longer-term carriage of bacterial pathogens in rings 23 or under long or artificial fingernails, and the recurrent role of long and artificial nails in outbreaks has led the CDC to recommend against them. 24 …”

A simple inexpensive audio-visual reminder of infection control procedures on entry to a neonatal intensive care unit

“…Many NICUs recommend that all jewellery, particularly rings, bracelets and wrist watches, should be removed below the elbows, as studies have shown them to increase bacterial colonization of hands. 4 As a further adjunct specifically aimed at visitors to the NICU, an audio message in the form of a WAV file was played by the computer after each press of the NICU's door bell (2-s latency period). As staff use swipe cards to enter and leave the NICU, it was anticipated that annoyance caused by the repetitive playing of the audio message would be kept to a minimum.…”

Bacterial and fungal contamination of dental hygienists' hands with and without finger rings

“…In a simulation of bacterial transmission, healthcare workers who wore and did not wear rings during routine practice, exchanged hand-shakes with an inves tigator. Transmission from healthcare workers to the investigator of Gram negative bacteria, Enterobacteriaceae, S. aureus was similar in the two groups, thus suggesting that the high level of hand contamination in ring wearing subjects, did not result in higher rate of pathogen trans mission 28 . A Cochrane systematic review seek ing to investigate whether finger ring removal by healthcare providers may help prevent sur gical infection reported insufficient evidence in support of this hypothesis 11 .…”