Evaluating in vitro antimicrobial activity of hand sanitizers

Abstract

Domestic hand sanitizers have been evaluated for their antibacterial activity according to Decision 120/2000/QĐ-BYT. However, the antibacterial ability was assessed with 10 minutes of the contact time, inconsistent with international standards and much longer than the actual hand washing time. Therefore, this study aims to test the antibacterial ability of dry hand sanitizer with some parameters, such as a list of tested bacteria, and at the same time, evaluate the antibacterial activity of some products being commercially available on the market. The results showed that the bacteria to evaluate the antibacterial activity selected were Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 29213, Escherichia coli ATCC 25922, Pseudomonas aeruginosa ATCC 27853, and Serratia marcescens ATCC 14756. The exposure time between the reagent and bacteria was 20 - 30 seconds, and the initial bacterial density was approximately 108 CFU/ml. Ten hand sanitizers can reduce the number of bacteria by more than 3 log10. In conclusion, the study has helped improve the current evaluation process of hand sanitizer products according to Decision 120/2000/QD-BYT.