Bacterial contamination of nonsterile gloves versus hands after hand hygiene
| Autor: | Gundula Harms, Margret Fluhr, Iris Synowzik, Ulrike Loh, Shneh Sethi, Katharina Ertelt, Matthias Trautmann, Angela Pollitt, Elvira Schäfer, Tatjana Klink, Beate Schöneck, Jasmin Dawud, Jasna Jovanovic, Radmila Bobic, Gregor Paul |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2021 |
| Předmět: |
Veterinary medicine
Epidemiology media_common.quotation_subject Health Personnel 03 medical and health sciences 0302 clinical medicine Hygiene Medicine Humans Gloves Surgical Hand Hygiene 030212 general & internal medicine media_common 0303 health sciences Cross Infection Bacteria 030306 microbiology business.industry Health Policy technology industry and agriculture Public Health Environmental and Occupational Health Contamination equipment and supplies Hand Infectious Diseases business Gloves Protective |
| Zdroj: | American journal of infection control. 49(11) |
| ISSN: | 1527-3296 |
| Popis: | Background Nonsterile gloves (NSG) are often overused, while the emphasis should lie in hand hygiene (HH). Furthermore, improper HH leads to contamination of NSG in glove boxes. The aim of this study was to compare microbial loads on hands from health-care workers (HCW) after HH to NSG and to study the influence of position and filling level of glove boxes on contamination rates. Methods Fingerprints on agar plates were made from randomly chosen HCWs directly after HH. Plates were incubated and colony-forming units (CFU) counted. NSG taken from glove boxes were also sampled. Filling level and position (horizontal vs vertical) of the glove boxes were recorded. Results Median CFU count was similar for hands after HH (N=107, median 1, IQR 5) and NSG (N=185, median 1, IQR 2, p-value 0.33). Only few samples in both groups showed growth of pathogenic bacteria. Neither the filling level (p-value 0.76), nor the position of the glove box (p-value 0.68) had an influence on NSG contamination. Conclusion Microbial loads of hands after HH are comparable to NSG. Filling level or position of the glove box did not influence glove contamination. Whether similar microbial counts translate into comparable nosocomial infection rates warrants further research. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
| Externí odkaz: |
|
Full Text from ScienceDirect