Increase in hospital purchase of hand hygiene products: The importance of focusing on the right product.

Link to article at PubMed

Increase in hospital purchase of hand hygiene products: The importance of focusing on the right product.

Am J Infect Control. 2015 Apr 24;

Authors: Biswal M, Prasad A, Dhaliwal N, Gupta AK, Taneja N

Abstract
Alcohol-based handrub (AHR) consumption is positively correlated with increases in hand hygiene (HH) compliance. In our 2,000-bed hospital in India, multiple awareness drives have been conducted to promote HH. This study aimed to determine the quantitative effect of these campaigns on use of HH products (soap and AHR) in the hospital. Over the last 6 years, bar soap consumption has increased by 389.15%, whereas that of AHR increased by 146.7%. We also evaluated microbial contamination of 99 bar soap and 60 liquid soap samples in our hospital for a year. Of the samples, 61 (61.6%) of the bar soaps and 2 (3.3%) of the liquid soaps were found to be contaminated with various organisms (P < .0002). To conclude, the focus should be to increase the right kind of HH product so that hospitals in developing countries procure liquid soaps instead of bar soaps for handwashing purposes.

PMID: 25920704 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

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