Hand hygiene.pdf

of the organism on their hands. Maki 36 found lower levels of colonization on the hands of
HCWs working in a neurosurgery unit, with an average of 3 CFUs of S. aureus and 11 CFUs
of Gram-negative bacilli. Serial cultures revealed that 100% of HCWs carried Gram-negative
bacilli at least once, and 64% carried S. aureus at least once. A recent study conducted
in two neonatal ICUs revealed that Gram-negative bacilli were recovered from the hands of
38% of nurses 84 .
5.3 ORGANISMS CAPABLE OF SURVIVING ON HANDS
Several studies have shown the ability of microorganisms to survive on hands for differing
times. Musa and colleagues demonstrated in a laboratory study that Acinetobacter
calcoaceticus survived better than strains of A. lwoffi at 60 minutes after an inoculum of
10 4 CFU/finger 86 . A similar study by Fryklund and colleagues using epidemic and non-epidemic
strains of E. coli and Klebsiella spp showed a 50% killing to be achieved at 6 and 2
minutes, respectively 87 . Noskin and colleagues studied the survival of vancomycin-resistant
enterococci (VRE) on hands and the environment; both Enterococcus faecalis and E.
faecium survived for at least 60 minutes on gloved and ungloved fingertips 88 . Furthermore,
Doring and colleagues showed that P. aeruginosa and Burkholderia cepacia were transmissible
by handshaking for up to 30 minutes when the organisms were suspended in saline
and up to 180 minutes when they were suspended in sputum 89 . The study by Islam and
colleagues with Shigella dysenteriae 1 showed its capacity to survive on hands for up to
1 hour in culturable form 90 . Two studies by Ansari and colleagues using rotavirus 91 and
human parainfluenza virus 3 and rhinovirus 14 in another 92 showed survival percentages
for rotavirus at 20 and 60 minutes to be 16.1% and 1.8%, respectively. Viability at 1 hour
for human parainfluenza virus 3 and rhinovirus 14 was