Which conditions promote a remanent (persistent) bactericidal activity of chlorine covers?

The interaction of disinfectants containing active chlorine compounds (hypo chlorite, chloramine T) with skin surfaces produces a so called chlorine co ver which is a true chemical transformation of the protein matrix of the ou termost horny skin layer by forming covalent N-Cl bonds. Though its intensi ty can easily be measured, the results on its remanent (persistent) bacteri cidal action until now have not been described consistently. While Gottardi and Karl observed a well-defined remanent action which correlated with the cover strength in the artificially with E. coli contaminated arm, Koller, Rotter, and Gottardi were not able to prove it, neither in artificially con taminated hands nor in the case of the resident bacterial colonization. To clarify these not consistent results, the bactericidal activity of chlor ine covers on transient (dry contamination of the finger tips with Micrococ cus luteus) as well as on resident colonization (after wearing gloves for 3 h) has been re-investigated using contact plates for recovering the bacter ia. The results are showing that the remanent bactericidal action of chlori ne covers strongly depends on the skin milieu, with moist conditions caused by sweat (surgical gloves) favoring the bactericidal activity. Elution experiments prove that protein constituents (detected by UV-spectro metry) continuously are transported to the skin-surface. It is obvious that the latter equilibrate with the chlorine cover by forming bactericidal N-C l compounds with the effect that oxidation capacity fixed at the protein ma trix is mobilized enabling the remanent bactericidal action.