Assessment of effectiveness of hand hygiene practices amongst food handlers of tertiary care hospital

Abstract

Diseases spread through food still remain a common and persistent problems resulting in appreciable morbidity and occasional mortality. Food handlers may constitute a reservoir of virulent strains and may be vehicles of their transmission to food. Approximately10 to 20% of food-borne disease outbreaks are due to contamination by the food handler. In hospitals regular training about food safety and hand hygiene practices for food handlers are done. So this study was planned to look for efficacy of hand hygiene practices by food handlers against contamination of hand by pathogenic organisms or parasites. This cross-sectional prospective analytical study was carried out from 1 st July to 31 st August 2018 in the department of Microbiology, attached to Raipur Institute of Medical Sciences, Raipur attached to tertiary care hospital after due approval of the Institutional Ethics Committee. A convenient sample size of 35 food handlers consenting to the study were included and swabs were collected from the hands of the food handlers just after their procedural hand wash and also the scrapings from the nail bed for fungi & parasitic forms. Data was maintained in Microsoft Excel and was analyzed using test of proportions. A total 31/35 (88.5%) samples taken showed growth with 51 clinical isolates. Beside commensal flora 10 strains of S. aureus and 5 Gram negative isolates like E .coli, Klebsiella and Pseudomonas were isolated by standard microbiological procedures. Two strains each of MRSA and Clindamycin induced Erythromycin resistance were identified whereas one strain of Klebsiella pneumoniae was found to be ESBL. No parasites or fungal elements were detected in the nail scrapping of the study population. The regular training and health education to maintain the personal hygiene and hand hygiene is a need of the hour to prevent transmission of the pathogenic microorganisms form food handler to Health care professional and/or patients.