Equivalent reduction of Escherichia coli by rinsing hands with cold and warm water

• Published in: GMS hygiene and infection control 2024-12, Vol.19, p.Doc72
• Main Authors: Kordasiewicz-Stingler, Romana, Reiter, Michael, Kampf, Günter, Gebel, Jürgen, Ilschner, Carola, Suchomel, Miranda
• Format: Article
• Language: ger
• Subjects: en 1499; hand rinsing; water temperature
• ISSN: 2196-5226
• DOI: 10.3205/dgkh000527

Objective: Hand washing is considered an important public health intervention to reduce the burden of communicable diseases such as gastrointestinal and respiratory tract infections. Washbasins in public restrooms are often only equipped with cold water and it can be observed that people only rinse their hands briefly after using the toilet instead of washing them properly with soap. As there are no recommendations on the optimal water temperature for efficacy, we measured the efficacy of simple hand rinsing with cold (4°C) and warm (40°C) water for 10 and 20 seconds compared to the European Norm EN 1499 reference hand wash. Methods: A Latin square design was used with five treatment groups and three participants per group. Hands were contaminated by immersion in an suspension. Before and after the respective treatment fingertips were sampled to obtain pre- and post-values. Pre- and post-values were averaged separately for each volunteer and the arithmetic means of all individual lg reductions were calculated and compared using Wilcoxon’s matched-pairs signed rank tests (one-sided, P