Three Swipes and You're Out: How Many Swipes Are Needed to Decontaminate Plastic with Disposable Wipes?

At our hospital, health care workers use commercially available wipes to reduce bacterial counts on plastic surfaces. The workers use the wipes in a cursory fashion--swiping objects once for one to two seconds. We sought to measure the ability of wipes to reduce bacterial counts when swiped across plastic surfaces using various routines.