Role of Hand Hygiene in Reducing Transient Flora on the Hands of Health Care Workers (HCW) at a Tertiary Health Care Centre in Ballari, India

Healthcare associated infections (HAI) are an important cause of morbidity and mortality among hospitalised patients worldwide. Hand hygiene is now considered as one of the most effective intervention to control transmission of infections in hospital. This study was done to determine the role of hand hygiene using alcohol based hand rub in reducing the transient flora in the hands of HCW and to study the awareness regarding hand hygiene among HCW. A total of 100 HCW from different spectrum were subjected to questionnaire to determine their knowledge on hand hygiene, following which cultures from impressions of all the 10 fingertips were taken on blood agar plates before and after using 70% alcohol based hand-rub. Identification of organism was done using standard methods and antimicrobial susceptibility testing was done for the potential pathogens. Out of 100 HCW 74% of them had significant bacterial count before the use of sanitizer and there was >95% reduction in colony count after hand hygiene procedure was followed. 28% were MRSA, 14% were ESBL producers. This study emphasized the importance of hand hygiene amongst the HCW and how umpteen nosocomial infections could be prevented effectively with 30 seconds procedure of hand hygiene.