Evaluation of World Health Organization–Recommended Hand Hygiene Formulations

Suchomel, Miranda; Eggers, Maren; Maier, Steffen; Kramer, Axel; Dancer, Stephanie J.; Pittet, Didier

Abstract

As a result of the coronavirus disease pandemic, commercial hand hygiene products have become scarce and World Health Organization (WHO) alcohol-based hand rub formulations containing ethanol or isopropanol are being produced for hospitals worldwide. Neither WHO formulation meets European Norm 12791, the basis for approval as a surgical hand preparation, nor satisfies European Norm 1500, the basis for approval as a hygienic hand rub. We evaluated the efficacy of modified formulations with alcohol concentrations in mass instead of volume percentage and glycerol concentrations of 0.5% instead of 1.45%. Both modified formulations met standard requirements for a 3-minute surgical hand preparation, the usual duration of surgical hand treatment in most hospitals in Europe. Contrary to the originally proposed WHO hand rub formulations, both modified formulations are appropriate for surgical hand preparation after 3 minutes when alcohol concentrations of 80% wt/wt ethanol or 75% wt/wt isopropanol along with reduced glycerol concentration (0.5%) are used.

Citation

Suchomel, M., Eggers, M., Maier, S., Kramer, A., Dancer, S. J., & Pittet, D. (2020). Evaluation of World Health Organization–Recommended Hand Hygiene Formulations. Emerging Infectious Diseases, 26(9), 2064-2068. https://doi.org/10.3201/eid2609.201761

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Online Publication Date: May 27, 2020
• Publication Date: 2020-09
• Deposit Date: Sep 24, 2020
• Publicly Available Date: Sep 24, 2020
• Journal: Emerging Infectious Diseases
• Print ISSN: 1080-6040
• Electronic ISSN: 1080-6059
• Publisher: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 26
• Issue: 9
• Pages: 2064-2068
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.3201/eid2609.201761
• Keywords: Microbiology (medical); Epidemiology; Infectious Diseases
• Public URL: http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/Output/2688199