Povidone-iodine and chlorhexidine gluconate-containing detergents for disinfection of hands

Abstract

The efficacy of a povidone-iodine and a chlorhexidine gluconate detergent was evaluated for ‘hygienic’ and ‘surgical’ hand disinfection. Rubbing 60 per cent iso-propanol on to the hands for 1 min was used as a standard for ‘hygienic’ disinfection, with Escherichia coli as the test organism. The mean log reduction obtained was 3.16 with povidone-iodine and 2.92 with chlorhexidine. These were considerably less than obtained with iso-propanol which produced a reduction of 4.23 and 4.30 orders of magnitude. In the ‘surgical’ hand disinfection tests, a 5 min wash with povidone-iodine and a 3 min wash with chlorhexidine detergent were compared with rubbing 60 per cent n-propanol or iso-propanol on to the hands for 5 min; n-propanol was taken as the standard preparation. Immediately after disinfection the log reduction in the resident flora was 0.92 with povidone-iodine and 0.78 with chlorhexidine, whereas n-propanol gave a log reduction of 3.43. After wearing a surgical glove for 3 h a log reduction of 0.24 was obtained with povidoneiodine, 0.75 with chlorhexidine and 2.94 with n-propanol. Treatment with iso-propanol gave a log reduction of 1.04. Thus, alcohols are shown by these tests to be far more effective than povidone-iodine or chlorhexidine detergent preparations in ‘hygienic’ as well as ‘surgical’ hand disinfection.