The researchers focused on alcohol-based hand rubs containing isopropanol or ethanol. To determine efficacy, they conducted European Standard EN 1500 tests with 20 volunteers. They performed an EN 1500 test for each 3 ml formulation of the liquid, gel or foam hand rubs. To determine drying time, researchers tested 1.5 and 3.0 ml of the three formulations on 15 volunteers. Volunteers self-reported when their hands were dry.
The study shows no difference in antibacterial efficacy between the three formulations. However, ethanol-based hand rubs tended to dry faster than isopropanol-based rubs. For both types of rubs, gels took longer to dry than other formulations.
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