The Effect of Hand Sanitizers Used in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Against the Common Bacterial Pathogens

Ali, Yousof Adam., (February 2015) TO STUDY THE EFFECT OF HAND SANITIZERS USED IN KINGDOM OF SAUDI ARABIA AGAINST THE COMMON BACTERIAL PATHOGENS., file:///C:/Users/E5-471-C3k3/Downloads/IRJNASHandSanitizersFeb2015.pdf

Washing of hand is utmost important to reduce the microbial contamination in hospital, laboratories, toiletries and at home. However the water used may not be safe all the times and therefore the use of soap and detergents have been introduced in addition to the water. Still in recent times the hand sanitizers have been introduced in the market which claims to have great bactericidal activity and safe for use. The hand sanitizers available in the market are both alcohol based and non-alcohol. The alcohol based hand sanitizer claims to kills 99.99% microorganisms including the most resistant form. The alcohol free hand sanitizer viz. povidone-iodine, benzalkonium chloride or triclosan have persistent antimicrobial activity for a prolonged period and claim to be effective in killing microorganism. In the present study the effectiveness of hand sanitizers both Alcohol / non-alcohol based are tested against the standard Staphylococcus aureus and E.coli. The evaluation of the hand sanitizer is done by Kirby-Bauer technique. The non-alcoholic sanitizer viz. Alemlaq (Alkyl Dimethyl Benzyl Ammonium chloride) was found to be more effective than other alcoholic sanitizer against Staphylococcus aureus. Similarly Lux (Sodium laurate) was found to be more effective than other alcoholic sanitizer against E.coli.

In 2007, a study was conducted to review the effectiveness of hand sanitizer in reducing the respiratory infection. [5] Currently, hand hygiene is considered as one of the most important measure to prevent any transmitted infection. [8] Since hand washing was not considered as a standard method to eliminate all microorganisms, alcohol based hand sanitizers are recommended for disinfection of hand.

Alcohol based hand sanitizers are proved to be the best for gastrointestinal and respiratory infections caused by viruses and gram negative bacteria. [3] The side effect of an alcohol based hand sanitizer is its dryness of skin. Non alcohol based hand sanitizers viz. benzalkonium chloride is known to have weak activity against gram negative bacteria as compared to alcohol and is prone to contamination by these bacteria. [1]