Hand sanitizer alert.

For alcohol-based hand sanitizers, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recommends a concentration of 60% to 95% ethanol or isopropanol, the concentration range of greatest germicidal efficacy. While non-healthcare groups also recommend alcohol-based hand sanitizers, they usually do not specify an appropriate concentration of alcohol. This paper reports the results of tests in which hands were sampled before and after 15 seconds of treatment with handrubs containing 40% ethanol indicated that the treatment failed to produce any significant reduction in CFU recovered from the hands. Emerging Infectious Diseases 2006;12:527-9.