Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Clinical Trial
. 2002 Apr 27;359(9316):1489-90.
doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(02)08426-X.

Limited efficacy of alcohol-based hand gels

Axel Kramer  1 , Peter Rudolph, Gonter Kampf, Didier Pittet
Affiliations
Clinical Trial

Limited efficacy of alcohol-based hand gels

Axel Kramer et al. Lancet. .

Abstract

Alcohol-based gels have been introduced recently in many hospitals worldwide for hand antisepsis. We investigated the antimicrobial efficacy of ten gels and four rinses according to European standards (EN 1500). No gel met the EN 1500 requirements within 30 s of application, whereas all hand rinses did. The tested hand gels should be considered a retrograde step for hand hygiene because the application time in clinical practice is often shorter than 30 s; they should not replace alcohol-based liquid hand disinfectants currently used in hospitals or be implemented as first choice agents.

PubMed Disclaimer

Comment in

LinkOut - more resources