A whole-glove method for the evaluation of surgical gloves as barriers to viruses.

BACKGROUND

Today, because of the wide variety of infectious agents encountered in the health care environment, clinicians must be particularly concerned about the potential for small-sized virus penetration through glove defects.

OBJECTIVE

To describe a method for testing gloves that evaluates the entire glove and allows for detection of low levels of virus penetration. Ten sets of 10 different gloves from 4 manufacturers were evaluated using this method.

METHODS

Barrier properties were evaluated using the bacteriophage, phiX174. Gloves were filled with surfactant solution placed in flasks containing 10(6) viruses per mL. Flasks were agitated at 37 degrees C +/- 2 degrees C and assayed for 180 minutes.

RESULTS

Virus penetration was detected in 8% of the 100 gloves tested using the quantitative assay. The qualitative assay determined that 14% of the gloves tested allowed penetration.