This clearly shows that alcohol-based hand-washing, when used regularly and vigorously (e.g. prior to any healthcare procedure by any level of personnel), infection will be reduced.

The Saudi study was a bit more detailed, with protocols varying depending on severity of procedure (surgery, etc.) and the administering of prophylactic antibiotics as part of the regular treatment procedure. Statistical analysis of the samples showed no significant differences between the Betadine Group and the Alcohol-Based Gel Group. However, the total number of infections within both groups were quite small, 20 out of 600 subjects in the trial. This suggests that the conditions at the Saudi hospital were already more sterile, with less than 5% (3.33%) even developing infections; compared to 13.1% in Vietnam. In both cases, demographic differences between patients were not statistically significant in the protocol.

Combining the data from the two studies, however, results in two conclusions: 1) There is...
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