Is alcohol hand gel effective against Clostridium difficile?
“When we talk C. difficile we are talking spores, and there is absolutely no disinfectant against spores. The only thing effective is chlorine, but it has to be in too high a concentration. During the treatment of a C. diff patient, use gloves, and then use handwashing or hand rubbing or whatever to kill other bugs.” Q: Most of the hand rubs contain 60 to 63 percent alcohol. Is 70 percent the absolute? A: “What we recommend is between 60 and 80 percent. When you use isopropyl alcohol, you can use lower concentrations than with ethyl alcohol. In the U.S., when you speak of alcohol-based hand rub, you speak of gels, since there are few rinses. The higher the content of alcohol in gel, the more efficacious it is, but gels are less effective than rinses — but still more effective than medicated soaps.” Q: What about antimicrobial hand wipes? A: “The problem with the wipes is that none of them has been really investigated in powerful studies, and we are not exactly sure of the efficacy of
