A standardized protocol for the evaluation of hand disinfection by surgical scrub formulations was applied to volunteers in a multicenter trial. Povidone iodine (PVI), chlorhexidine (CHX), and a nonmedicated soap (NMS) were tested. The scrubbing procedure involved three daily hand washings for five consecutive days; surviving bacteria were counted daily after being collected in a suitable neutr...

A recent research letter on the limited efficacy of alcohol-based hand gels has alerted the global infection control community and raised the question of the true significance of data obtained according to EN 1500. It has been described that a 1 min simple hand wash reduces artificial contamination of hands by a log(10) reduction factor of 2.8 and a 1 min reference hand disinfection with 2-prop...

This study assessed the inhaled dose of alcohol during hand disinfection. Experiments were conducted with two types of hand rub using two hand disinfection procedures. Air samples were collected every 10 s from the breathing zone, by bubbling through a mixture of K(2)Cr(2)O(7) and H(2)SO(4). The reduction of dichromate ions in the presence of alcohols was followed by UV-vis spectrophotometry. T...

OBJECTIVE To introduce a new sequential chlorination disinfection process in which short-term free chlorine and chloramine are sequentially added. METHODS Pilot tests of this sequential chlorination were carried out in a drinking water plant. RESULTS The sequential chlorination disinfection process had the same or better efficiency on microbe (including virus) inactivation compared with the...