What Do Alcoholic Handrubs Contain?
Alcoholic handrubs are the primarily recommended hand hygiene tools according to all large professional organizations. (ABHR = Alcohol-based handrub, according to the WHO terminology.) These contain alcohol as active ingredient; ethanol , propan-1-ol , propan-2-ol or the combination of these. These three alcohols have several alternative names, some may sound more familiar: the alternative names are listed in Figure 1 , along with their chemical structures. Figure 1 : Structure of ethanol, propan-1-ol and propan-2-ol (using the official IUPAC names). Drawings were made by molwiev.org . The antimicrobial activity of alcohols derives from their ability to denature proteins. According to the WHO, alcohol solutions containing 60–80% alcohol are the most effective [1] . CDC claims that the most effective concentration range is between 60 and 95% [2] . Higher concentrations are less potent, because proteins are not denatured easily in the absence of water. Alcohols have
