Survival of gram-negative and gram-positive bacteria artificially applied on the hands.

We evaluated the survival of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Serratia marcescens, Escherichia coli, and Staphylococcus aureus, derived from either hospitalized patients or culture collections, on the fingertips of human volunteers. Over 99% of the bacteria died within 2 min of the application, and about 10(5) cells remained on the fingers for up to 90 min.