Microbial flora of hands of homemakers

Because of increasing concern about antimicrobial resistance in the community, aerobic flora of hands of 224 healthy homemakers in northern Manhattan, New York, were examined.

Mean log colony-forming unit counts before and after handwashing were 5.72 and 5.69, respectively, P =.60; mean number of species identified/sample was 3.6 before washing and 3.3 after (P =.02). After handwashing gram-negative bacteria were isolated from 75.1% of subjects; yeast from 32.9%; and Staphylococcus aureus from 18.5%, 1 of which (2.4%) was oxacillin-resistant. Generally, these community isolates were more sensitive than isolates from inpatients in the local hospital, although community isolates of Pseudomonas aeruginosa were significantly more resistant than inpatient isolates for 4/10 agents tested.

Hands of healthy persons in the community were usually colonized with gram-negative bacteria, a single handwash had little impact on microbial counts, and hands of healthy adults may increasingly become one reservoir for antimicrobial resistance.