Hand Hygiene Lab Report: Analysis

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Bacteria

Hygiene is the essential component of healthcare that allows people to prevent the spread of diseases and decrease the chances of the aggravation of patients’ state in healthcare facilities. The first scholarly research that proved the connection between the transmission of infections and hand washing dates back to the 19th century (Boyce, 2019b). Obligatory hand washing among medical personnel allowed healthcare institutions to decrease the mortality rate from puerperal sepsis after childbirth (Novák et al., 2020). In general, contemporary scholars agree that hand washing allows people to prevent the leading cause of contamination, which proves its efficiency (Boyce, 2019b). It is essential to wash hands after touching not sterile surfaces to prevent the spread of pathogens.

Bacterial and fungal causes of the infection are the two main types of the disease, and both types are transmitted by contact. It justifies the need for proper hygiene not only among healthcare professionals but also among all people. Even though not all bacteria are pathogens and constitute an essential part of living organisms, some cause diseases such as tuberculosis, leprosy, anthrax, syphilis, and cholera. There are also many respiratory infections caused by bacteria (Novák et al., 2020). Hand washing with soap and running water can help people prevent the spread of bacterial infections, a fundamental issue in hygiene and disease control.

Bacteria are transmitted by contact, and proper hand hygiene allows people to avoid contamination or minimize the chances of adverse outcomes. The vital detail is that bacteria are often “hidden” under the long nails, which explains the need to keep them short for medical personnel (Novák et al., 2020). Another critical point is the importance of drying hands after adequately washing them because the number of bacteria increases in moisture (Novák et al., 2020). Various investigations show that rings and long nails are the most common places where bacteria cannot be easily reached by soap or hand sanitizer (Novák et al., 2020). As a result, it is logical that people who work in the healthcare sphere do not have long nails and rings, which is part of common knowledge in medical institutions. However, if people want to achieve a sufficient level of hand hygiene, they should also follow this advice.

Fungi

Fungi belong to the large group of microorganisms that are an integral part of the environment. Even though not all fungi are harmful to humans, some pathogens cause illnesses, including such widespread infections as candida. It can affect the esophagus, throat, mouth, vagina, and skin (Novák et al., 2020). The harmful impact of fungi is especially evident when the person has a weakened immune system that can usually cope with these microorganisms without external assistance (Lotfinejad et al., 2021). However, when the individual has immune problems, the symptoms of fungi become significant and harmful, which requires medical help and treatment with antibiotics (Lotfinejad et al., 2021). Therefore, fungi can cause considerable health harm, making preventing their spread a critical issue in public healthcare.

Fungi are the pathogens that most people ignore because they do not cause disease every time they are on human skin. As a result, many individuals disregard their dangerous essence and ignore this cause of infections. The morbidity rates from the diseases caused by fungi in developing countries are high due to the limited spread of hand hygiene rules and vaccination for specific conditions. For example, more than 200 thousand people in African countries are infected with cryptococcal meningitis, and almost all die from this illness caused by fungi without proper treatment (Lotfinejad et al., 2021). Another fungi, Pneumocystis, leads to the development of pneumonia, and more than 400 thousands of individuals die from it worldwide without access to therapy (Lotfinejad et al., 2021). Even though many fungal infections do not lead to death when the person receives medical treatment, they can spoil human life significantly and impact the person’s socialization (Novák et al., 2020). For example, skin infections can make the attitude of other people to the ill individual cautious.

Various fungi cause infections that can be prevented by proper hand hygiene. For example, penicillium fungi cola is one of the fungi types that lead to the development of the dry bubble disease. The conidia of these fungi are eliminated by the three steps of hand cleaning, which includes the use of soap, alcohol-based sanitizer, and water. Adding hand sanitizer shows a significant increase in the effectiveness of hand cleaning compared to using only soap and water (Lotfinejad et al., 2021). In all cases, hand washing and sanitizing is the primary step in stopping the spore dispersal of the fungi.

Viruses

Viruses are another cause of infection, but their way of contamination is different from bacterial and fungal. Even though viruses have airborne transmission, some can remain on surfaces for hours. The recent pandemic of COVID-19 proved this assumption, and proper hand washing was one of the fundamental ways to prevent its spread and avoid contamination (Moore et al., 2021). The droplets of the virus can remain on the surfaces and hands, which proves the necessity of hygiene to reduce the risks of the virus spread and mutation.

The pandemic of COVID-19 led to significant changes in hand hygiene due to the high morbidity from this virus and the inability of healthcare facilities to cope with the considerable number of patients. The investigation shows that the rate of hand hygiene increased from 46% to 56% in public schools during the first months of the virus epidemic (Moore et al., 2021). It remained stably high (more than 60% during the peak of the disease spread (Moore et al., 2021). The results of this study show public awareness of the importance of hand washing during the virus epidemic, which is closely connected with decreasing the risks of contamination and the spread of the infection.

There are two significant concerns connected with hand hygiene and preventing virus transmission. They are associated with preserving skin integrity, which is critical in preventing the further spread of microorganisms. Irritation from alcohol sanitizers and frying hands is a crucial issue in skin integrity (Gammon & Hunt, 2020). Therefore, it is necessary to preserve the rules of hand hygiene to prevent the spread of the virus infection, but at the same time, supporting the integrity of the skin on the hands is also vital.

How Soap Works

Removing all bacteria, fungi, and viruses from the skin is impossible without using soap and running water. These two components allow for mechanically removing pathogens from human skin, and soap helps to do it on a profound level. Soap attracts and repels water simultaneously, which means it is hydrophilic and hydrophobic simultaneously (Boyce, 2019a). The primary function of soap is to trap the fragments of dirt and destroy the pathogens with the micelles produced as emulsification (Boyce, 2019a). Scrubbing the skin with the foam creates friction, the main characteristic of hand washing with soap (Boyce, 2019a). Hand washing supposes soap breaks down fats in the skin that trap microbes, and the running water washes them away from the skin (Lei et al., 2020). Most soaps have a pH of 9-10, which is the marker of their cleansing ability (Lei et al., 2020). Though some soaps have lower Ph, which makes their effect on skin milder, they do not destroy the pathogens as effectively as the soap with the highest pH.

How Sanitizer Works

Hand sanitizers have become very popular in recent years due to the opportunity to clean hands without access to soap and running water. Their alcoholic component allows them to be effective in coping with viruses, bacteria, and fungi. The amount of alcohol the sanitizers should contain is at least 60% (Golin et al., 2020). They destroy the cell membrane of bacteria and the outer coat of viruses, which explains their effectiveness (Jing et al., 2020). It is an example of sanitizers’ denaturation effect (Jing et al., 2020). The critical detail is that the sanitizers that contain much alcohol adversely impact the skin, which causes irritation and friction. As a result, it facilitates contamination with pathogens, which might be potentially harmful to the individual (Golin et al., 2020). Even though hand washing using soap and water is still the most effective method of hand hygiene, sanitizers can be helpful when these two things are unavailable.

Measurement

The measurement of hand hygiene results is objective because it is possible to check the skin for pathogens using a microscope. The results of the investigations used for this lab report use this method of control of the study’s measurements (Stadler & Tschudin-Sutter, 2020). Therefore, it is possible to tell whether the hand hygiene technique is effective or not using the results of the analysis in the laboratory.

Rationale

For several reasons, it is essential to include the viruses in the investigation of hand washing techniques that will not be grown in the laboratory. First, it will justify using the hand hygiene method in working with viruses and their prevention (Suchomel et al., 2020). Second, the generalizations allow scholars to elaborate on universal principles of hand hygiene that can be applied to various situations in human life (Vermeil et al., 2019). These conclusions will make the study’s results universal and practically applicable to many cases.

Purpose

This laboratory report aims to gather information concerning hand hygiene, its application in practice, and its effects. The investigation allows us to understand the principles of hand washing and using sanitizers for hand work (Vermeil et al., 2019). Understanding these principles allows for increasing awareness of the processes that lead to contamination and the practical ways to prevent it. In addition, the detailed understanding of the effect of soap, water, and alcohol sanitizers on viruses, bacteria, and fungi allows scholars to elaborate on alternative methods of hand hygiene that might be required in some instances.

Justification

Research of hand hygiene methods is essential in the contemporary healthcare discourse. First, it increases public awareness of the appropriate hand-washing technique and the need for hand hygiene to reduce the risks of the disease’s spread. Second, it will enable scholars to develop alternative methods of hand hygiene when the traditional ones are unavailable. For example, the recent COVID-19 pandemic emphasized the need to elaborate alternative hand hygiene methods. The researchers write about it in the following way:

“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” (Suchomel et al., 2020, p. 2064).

These lines show that the principle of the traditional and the alternative hand washing method is similar, allowing healthcare professionals to use them in critical situations.

Hypothesis

According to the research, proper hand washing or hand hygiene allows people to reduce the risks of contamination with bacteria, viruses, and fungi, which is an essential component of disease control and prevention.

References

Boyce J. M. (2019a). Best products for skin antisepsis.American Journal of infection control, 47S, A17–A22. Web.

Boyce J. M. (2019b). Current issues in hand hygiene. American Journal of infection control, 47S, A46–A52. Web.

Gammon, J., & Hunt, J. (2020). COVID-19 and hand hygiene: the vital importance of hand drying. British journal of Nursing (Mark Allen Publishing), 29(17), 1003–1006.

Golin, A. P., Choi, D., & Ghahary, A. (2020). Hand sanitizers: A review of ingredients, mechanisms of action, modes of delivery, and efficacy against coronaviruses. American Journal of infection control, 48(9), 1062–1067.

Jing, J., Pei Yi, T., Bose, R., McCarthy, J. R., Tharmalingam, N., & Madheswaran, T. (2020). Hand sanitizers: A review on formulation aspects, adverse effects, and regulations.International journal of environmental research and public health, 17(9), 3326. Web.

Lei, H., Xiao, S., Cowling, B. J., & Li, Y. (2020). Hand hygiene and surface cleaning should be paired for prevention of fomite transmission.Indoor air, 30(1), 49–59. Web.

Lotfinejad, N., Peters, A., Tartari, E., Fankhauser-Rodriguez, C., Pires, D., & Pittet, D. (2021). Hand hygiene in health care: 20 years of ongoing advances and perspectives.The Lancet. Infectious diseases, 21(8), e209–e221. Web.

Moore, L. D., Robbins, G., Quinn, J., & Arbogast, J. W. (2021). The impact of COVID-19 pandemic on hand hygiene performance in hospitals.American journal of infection control, 49(1), 30–33. Web.

Novák, M., Breznický, J., Kompaníková, J., Malinovská, N., & Hudečková, H. (2020). Impact of hand hygiene knowledge on the hand hygiene compliance. Medicinski glasnik: official publication of the Medical Association of Zenica-Doboj Canton, Bosnia and Herzegovina, 17(1), 194–199.

Stadler, R. N., & Tschudin-Sutter, S. (2020). What is new with hand hygiene?. Current opinion in infectious diseases, 33(4), 327–332.

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.

Vermeil, T., Peters, A., Kilpatrick, C., Pires, D., Allegranzi, B., & Pittet, D. (2019). Hand hygiene in hospitals: anatomy of a revolution. The Journal of hospital infection, 101(4), 383–392. Web.

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