Longevity of hand sanitisers on fingers

Hand hygiene is important to reduce the spread of microbes in clinical settings. Hand sanitisers that last longer may be beneficial.

Longevity of hand sanitisation products on fingers and hands may be important to help reduce microbial transmission. The current study evaluated the persistence of disinfection of three hand sanitisers.

Initially the minimum inhibitory concentrations of the hand sanitisers were determined using strains of Staphylococcus epidermidis and S. aureus. Then a cross-over study with participants randomly assigned to use three different hand sanitisers for 30 seconds was undertaken. The number of bacteria and fungi on fingers was assessed 10 and 20 minutes and 4 hours after use. The type of microbial inhibition of the capric acid sanitiser was studied by examining the effects of adding Tween 80 and lecithin to microbial agar.

The minimum inhibitory concentration of an alcohol-based sanitiser (AS) was 10%, for the capric acid-based (CS) sanitiser was 70%, and for the quaternary ammonium-based (QS) sanitiser was < 10%. AS significantly reduced the number of microbes on fingers 10 minutes after hand washing (18.2 cfu/mL) compared to CS (59.7 cfu/mL; p < 0.0001) or QS (64.5 cfu/mL; p < 0.0001). Twenty minutes after use, microbes on fingers after AS (23 cfu/mL) or CS (16.7 cfu/mL) were significantly reduced compared to QS (72.2  cfu/mL; p < 0.0001) and the numbers on fingers after CS was significantly less than after AS (p = 0.002). Four hours after use of any hand sanitiser, the number of microbes increased to near baseline levels. The reduction in bacterial numbers was not affected by the use of neutralisers in agar (48 ± 28% reduction with, 47 ± 49% reduction without; p = 0.876).

Hand sanitisers containing capric acid or alcohol out-performed one containing quaternary ammonium in the clinical trial and may help reduce the spread of microbes.