Table 2 Items covered by the questionnaire used to assess healthcare workers’ knowledge, awareness, and practices

Demographics, professional profile of participants: age, gender, profession, hospital/center, ward (see Table 3)

Familiarity with AS, DI and HH products (see Table 3)

 Experience with AS, DI and HH products

 Training in IPC (≤ 1 year ago, > 1 year ago, never, or not recalled)

 Confidence in products used in the ward

 Preference of products used for hand hygiene

 Products actually used for hand hygiene in the ward

 Preference for container types (alcohol-based hand rub) (see Fig. 1)

Knowledge about bacterial contamination

 Knowledge about products used for skin disinfection

 Knowledge about products used for disinfection of equipment and surfaces

 Vulnerability to bacterial contamination: povidone iodine, alcohol-based hand rub, chlorine 0.5%, household soap

 Period-after-opening (example of povidone iodine)

 Shelf life of chlorine 0.5% solution and ethanol 70%

 Storage of chlorine 0.5% solution versus ethanol 70% (transparent container)

Awareness of the risk of bacterial contamination

 Preparation of alcohol and chlorine products in the pharmacy: use of tap water

 Preparation of chlorine products in the pharmacy: cleaning of utensils

 Use of liquid soap, mobile handwash station (see Fig. 1): tap water, period-after-opening, reprocessing of containers

 Recognizing depicted risk practices when handling products and containers (see Fig. 1)

 Acceptability of recycling a soft-drink bottle as liquid soap container (see Fig. 1)

 Recognizing bar soap risk contamination mitigation practices: use of small pieces, use receptacle allowing drainage of fluid

 Practice of “topping-up” soap containers in a high-risk ward (neonatal ward)

Risk Practices conducive to bacterial contamination

 Reuse of containers: frequency

 Reprocessing of containers: how are containers reprocessed?