COMPARISON OF BACTERICIDAL EFFECTS OF COMMONLY USED ANTISEPTICS AGAINST PATHOGENS CAUSING NOSOCOMIAL INFECTIONS .2.

Opportunistic infections caused by gram-negative rods (GNR), conventio nally regarded as organisms with low or no pathogenicity, and intracta ble infections caused by Various resistant organisms pose a great prob lem now. In view of this, we determined the bactericidal effects of 5 commonly used disinfectants using as the test strains Xanthomonas malt ophilia and Serratia marcescens, chosen among other GNR since they oft en cause nosocomial infections. Regarding the bactericidal activities against X. maltophilia and S. marcescens, both sensitive strains and r esistant strains were killed within 20 s of exposure to povidone-iodin e and sodium hypochlorite. With chlorhexidine, 1 strain each of both s pecies was not killed within 10 min of exposure at a concentration of 0.2%. Both sensitive strains and resistant strains of X. maltophilia w ere killed within 20 s of exposure to benzalkonium at 0.02%, while a c oncentration of 0.1% was required for benzalkonium to kill S. marcesce ns within 20 s. With Tego-51, both sensitive strains and resistant str ains of X. maltophilia were killed within 20 s at 0.02%, while 1 strai n of S. marcescens was not killed within 20 s at a concentration of 0. 1%. In the use of disinfectants, comparative bactericidal effects of v arious disinfectants against clinical isolates should be taken into co nsideration.