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When hand antiseptics won’t cut it

Staff Development Weekly: Insight on Evidence-Based Practice in Education, May 3, 2007

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They're less drying than soap and water, but hand sanitizers cannot kill three main categories of viruses and bacteria. In these instances, healthcare workers should follow any virus- or bacteria-specific hand washing recommendations. For example, when working with C. difficile patients, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that healthcare workers wash their hands with nonantimicrobial or antimicrobial soap and water, which can physically remove spores from the surface.

Below are the major categories of viruses and bacteria that are not susceptible to alcohol-based hand gels:

Nonenveloped or nonlipohilic viruses:

• Norovirus
• Calicivirus
• Picornavirus
• Parvovirus

Bacterial spores:

• B. anthracis (anthrax)
• B. cereus (food poisoning)
• C. botulinum (botulism)
• C. tetani (tetanus)
• C. perfringens (gas gangrene)
• C. difficile

Protozoan oocysts:

• Amebic dysentery
• Giardia lamblia

To get more information, go to Briefings on Infection Control (BOIC). For the cost of just three stories, you can get the entire May issue of BOIC. Click here to choose between the PDF and HTML versions for just $30. Subscribers to the online version of BOIC have free access to this article. Subscribers to the print newsletter can find this article in their May issue.

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