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Handwashing Agents

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Nancy B. Bjerke
Nancy B. Bjerke*
Affiliation:
Department of the Air Force, School of Health Care Sciences, Sheppard Air Force Base, Texas
*
Department of the Air Force, School of Health Care Sciences, USAF (ATC), Sheppard Air Force Base, TX 76311-5465
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Extract

Today's infection control practitioners (ICPs) bear a problem other than the one that faced Ignaz Semmelweis: not only do they attempt to get hospital personnel to wash their hands, they are bombarded by the choices of which soap to use. What type of soap is best? Towelette? Powder? Bar? Foam? Waterless? Lotion? Liquid? Should the agent be scented or unscented, medicated or nonmedicated, antimicrobial or antiseptic? Is a residual bacteriostatic effect more desirable than a fast-acting bactericidal effect? Can a ten-second cleansing yield a better handwash than a ten-minute scrub?

Type
Special Sections
Information
Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology , Volume 8 , Issue 9 , September 1987 , pp. 384 - 385
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America 1987

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References

1.Centers for Disease Control: Guidelines for Hospital Environmental Control, 1981.Google Scholar
2.Centers for Disease Control: Guidelines for Handwashing and Hospital Environmental Control, 1985.Google Scholar
3.Crow, S, Product evaluation committee. Infect Control 1985;5:207–208.CrossRefGoogle Scholar