Highlights
- •Bacterial counts on hands after hand hygiene do not differ from nonsterile gloves.
- •The filling level of glove boxes does not influence contamination rates of gloves.
- •Contamination of nonsterile gloves is independent of the position of the glove box.
Abstract
Background
Nonsterile gloves (NSG) are often overused, while the emphasis should lie in hand
hygiene (HH). Furthermore, improper HH leads to contamination of NSG in glove boxes.
The aim of this study was to compare microbial loads on hands from health-care workers
(HCW) after HH to NSG and to study the influence of position and filling level of
glove boxes on contamination rates.
Methods
Fingerprints on agar plates were made from randomly chosen HCWs directly after HH.
Plates were incubated and colony-forming units counted. NSG taken from glove boxes
were also sampled. Filling level and position (horizontal vs vertical) of the glove
boxes were recorded.
Results
Median colony-forming units count was similar for hands after HH (N = 107, median
1, IQR 5) and NSG (N = 185, median 1, IQR 2, P-value .33). Only few samples in both groups showed growth of pathogenic bacteria.
Neither the filling level (P-value .76), nor the position of the glove box (P-value .68) had an influence on NSG contamination.
Conclusion
Microbial loads of hands after HH are comparable to NSG. Filling level or position
of the glove box did not influence glove contamination. Whether similar microbial
counts translate into comparable nosocomial infection rates warrants further research.
Key words
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: April 17, 2021
Identification
Copyright
© 2021 Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
