Question

Post-Lab: Effectiveness of Hand Washing

1. What was the purpose of this exercise?

2. Which treatment resulted in the highest number of colonies, indicating that it did NOT remove very many microbes? Did you expect this result? Why or why not?

3. Did each hand washing treatment appear to result in the same type of organisms growing on the plate? How can you tell? Why might you have seen differences?

4. Do you think that your hands were “sterile” after any of the four treatments? Explain your answer.

MICROBIOLOGY LAB

Answer 1

1. To minimise the spread of disease. Helps to remove the pathogens in the hands. Types of hand wash are, Normal hand wash, Antiseptic handwash and surgical handwash.

2. Normal water treatment method of washing hands will result in the highest number of colonies, that indicates there is no removal of microbes. Yes of course, I expected this result. Because, normal water itself has so many microbes in it, ethanol washing or soap washing may prevent the spread of microorganisms.

3. No, each hand washing treatment will not appear in the same type of organism growing on the plate. Water may contain different contaminants even soap might contain the different microorganisms.

4. Yes, antiseptic method washing may prevent 98 percentage of germs from the hand in which water and antimicrobial soap will be used.