Invitro Assessment of Antibacterial and Antifungal Agents Efficacy of Some Isolates from Hands Surface

Abstract

Insufficient hand hygiene has been implicated in Hospital and community-acquired infections. Our hands are soiled when being used to touch contaminated surfaces and therefore serve as a vector for the transmission of infectious microorganisms. The efficacy of hand sanitizers sold out to the public is crucial to infection prevention and control since its one of the ways to break the chain of transmission of infections caused by pathogenic microorganisms colonizing our hands. Accordingly, five (5) brands of commonly used hands sanitizers was purchased in triplicate within Sokoto metropolis and were evaluated for their efficacy against selected transient bacteria and fungi isolates from hands surfaces. The test isolates were identified by cultural and microscopic examination, biochemically and serologically. The isolated test organisms include: Salmonella typhi, Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli0157:H7
and Candida albicans. The efficacy testing of the sanitizers was carried out by: 1) the time kill test and ii) the in use potency test. The result of the time kill test revealed that only DET-HS reduced the test isolates by a 3Log10 and above within 30 seconds of application. The other hand sanitizers showed a lesser log10 reduction of the test isolates at the said time. The efficacy of the Hand Sanitizers in reducing base line bacterial count from hands of subjects was computed. The mean percentage colony forming unit reduction shown by DET-HS was 99.7%, and therefore was the highest in efficacy observed. GMB-HS showed the least bacteria load reduction of 31.3%. Regulatory bodies are encouraged to carry out steady routine checks and constant efficacy testing of hand sanitizers sold within the public domain so as to inform the populace on hand sanitizers most suitable for hand hygiene practice, withdraw and destroy
substandard products sold off the counter while enforcing stringent quality assurance measures during formulation, importation, storage, distribution and sales of the products.