ANTIBACTERIAL ACTIVITY ON HAND SANITIZERS SOLD IN UMUAHIA, ABIA STATE.

 ABSTRACT

Decontamination of hands is accomplished by hand washing with soap or by use of waterless hand sanitizers. Hand sanitizers is formulated and used to reduce bacterial load on the skin. This study is aimed at comparing the activity of six alcohol based hand sanitizers (DETTOL, TONAK, HIGEEN, PURELL, LOVEILLEA and BLACKBERRY GERM BLASTER )sold in Umuahia, Abia state, Nigeria, against clinical bacterial isolates (Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa). Susceptibility of the bacterial isolates was evaluated using the agar well diffusion method by measuring the zones of inhibition observed after 24hours of incubation. Their minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) and minimum bactericidal concentrations (MBC) were also determined using the broth dilution technique. TOK® and BBG® hand sanitizer had the highest zones of inhibition (30mm) against Staphylococcus aureus and an average of 20mm against Pseudomonas aeruginosa. PURELL hand sanitizer indicated highest antibacterial potency as it completely inhibited the test organisms. Thus PURELL hand sanitizer was the most effective of all the tested hand sanitizer with a MIC and MBC of 1.52% and 3.125% both for Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. These studies shows that alcohol based hand sanitizers have different potency to achieve effective hand hygiene.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER ONE                                                                                                                     1

Title page                                                                                                                                i

Certification                                                                                                                            ii

Dedication                                                                                                                              iii

Acknowledgment                                                                                                                   iv

 Table of content                                                                                                                     v

Abstract                                                                                                                                  

1.1  Introduction                                                                                                                1

1.2  Aims                                                                                                                           3

1.3  Objectives of this study                                                                                              3

CHAPTER TWO

2.0 Literature Review                                                                                                             4

2.1 Types of hand sanitizers                                                                                                   5

2.2 Uses of hand sanitizers                                                                                                     7

2.3 Areas of application                                                                                                         8

2.4 Safety                                                                                                                                9

2.5 Effectiveness                                                                                                                    11

2.6 The organisms used                                                                                                          13

CHAPTER THREE

3.0 Materials and methods                                                                                                      17

3.1 Assessment of Antibacterial potency of Hand Sanitizers                                                19

3.2 Determination of minimum concentration (MIC) and Minimum

      Bactericidal Concentration (MBC)                                                                                  20

CHAPTER FOUR

4.0 Results                                                                                                                              21

CHAPTER FIVE

5.0 Discussion and Recommendations                                                                                   28

5.1 Conclusions                                                                                                                      29

5.2 Recommendations                                                                                                            29

       References                                                                                                                       30

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: Chemical composition of different sanitizer screened for antibacterial activity   18

Table 2: Zone of inhibitions in Millimetres (mm) for DETTOL as a hand sanitizer

tested against bacterial isolates                                                                                  21

Table 3: Zone of inhibitions in Millimetres (mm) for TONAK as a

hand sanitizer tested against bacterial isolates                                                           22

Table 4: Zone of inhibitions in Millimetres (mm) for HIGEEN as a

hand sanitizer tested against bacterial isolates                                                           23

Table 5: Zone of inhibitions in Millimetres (mm) for PURELL as a

hand sanitizer tested against bacterial isolates                                                           24

Table 6: Zone of inhibitions in Millimetres (mm) for LOVILLEA as a

hand sanitizer tested against bacterial isolates                                                           25

Table 7: Zone of inhibitions in Millimetres (mm) for BLACK-BERRY

GERM BLASTER (BBG) as a hand sanitizer tested against bacterial isolates         26

Table 8: Minimum Inhibitory Concentration and Minimum Bactericidal

concentrations of selected hand sanitizer tested against Bacterial Isolates                        27

CHAPTER ONE

1.0 INTRODUCTION

Hand washing is one of the most important steps to avoid spreading microorganisms such as, bacteria and viruses that may lead to harmful diseases. Skin is one of the most exposed part of the body requires protection from the pathogens. To prevent spreading of many contagious diseases, hand washing is absolutely an important precaution. Normal human skin is colonized by bacteria, with total aerobic bacterial counts ranging from more than 1 x 10⁶ colony forming units (CFU)/cm² on the scalp, 5 x 10⁵ CFU/cm² in the axilla, and 4 x 10⁴ CFU/cm² on the abdomen to 1 x 10⁴ CFU/cm² on the forearm (Kampf . G, and Kramer, A., 2004).

Alcohol-based waterless hand sanitizers for hand decontamination are an alternative to soap and water hand washing.  Today, hygiene is associated with disease prevention and health promotion, and the importance of hygiene is universally recognized and evidence based. Effective hand hygiene is a key intervention in disease prevention (Aiello et al, 2002).

Studies on the effectiveness of hand sanitizers have been somewhat conflicting. Some findings suggest that sanitizers are actually better than normal hand washing at killing microorganisms while others have discovered that hand washing is still superior. These researches indicate that there are many variables that would be causing these discrepancies. First of all, the concentration of alcohol based sanitizer’s needs to be at least 60% to be effective. Alcohol based sanitizers at this concentration or higher are very effective at killing microorganisms but the alcohol evaporates quickly on the hands and may not be present on the skin long enough for adequate protection.

Chemicals used in hand hygiene exhibit bactericidal or bacteriostatic properties depending on their concentrations (Boyce and Pittet, 2002; McDonald, 2003; David and Famurewa, 2006).

Alcohol is used as the main antibacterial component of most waterless hand sanitizer’s agents due to its antimicrobial properties (Boyce and Pittet, 2002). Some alcohol-based hand sanitizers have been reported to kill up to 99.9% of organisms within 15 s of application (Larson, 1995; Aiello and Larson, 2002)

 Hand washing and/or the use of hand sanitizer remains the major way of breaking transmission of infection (Pedersen et al., 2005b; CDC, 2009; Alex-Hart and Opara, 2011; Omogbai et al., 2011). Different antimicrobial agents have been incorporated into hand sanitizers to increase its performance (Mathieu, 2009). Hand sanitizers have been reported not only to reduce hand bacterial contamination but also enhance hand hygiene compliance (Fendler et al., 2002; Mody et al., 2003). Despite the widespread use of hand sanitizers in Nigeria (especially with the Ebola virus scare) there is dearth of information in the open scientific literature that could substantiate its use. Therefore, this study was aimed at investigating the antibacterial activity of commonly used hand sanitizers in Umuahia, Abia State, Nigeria on some selected common pathogenic bacteria.

For centuries, hand washing with soap and water has been considered a measure of personal hygiene (Anonymous, CDC; 2004) but the link between hand washing and the spread of disease has only been established in the last 200 years. Products containing antimicrobial agents that kill, inhibit or reduce the number of microorganisms on the hand are topical hand sanitizers (Pedersen et al., 2005) Although normal flora can display agonistic affects, where one organism forms a symbiotic relationship with another organism, the flora may also serve as a source of infection for the host. There are two types of normal flora on the skin: transient and resident flora. Resident flora can be persistently found on the skin, while transient floras are contracted from the external environment. The current standards for hand sanitizers only require the elimination of transient microorganisms. Hand sanitizers products have been found to eliminate bacteria in two ways. The use of active ingredients found in the actual product and the washing, rinsing and drying process help to eliminate flora on the hands. The most effective way active ingredients kill the flora is by breaking down the bacterium’s cell membrane (Pedersen et al.,2005)

1.1 Aim

The aim of this study is to determine the effectiveness of hand sanitizers.

1.2 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

To compare the activity of six different alcohol based hand sanitizers

(DETTOL, TONAK, HIGEEN, PURELL, LOVEILLEA and BLACK-BERRY GERM BLASTER sold in Umuahia, Abia State, Nigeria, against clinical bacterial isolates (Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa).

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