19. The research associate, who has undergone training in the sampling technique, will be responsible for taking hand samples for bacterial counts, using the glove juice technique. Samples will be labelled with study numbers only. Innoculated agar plates will be incubated at 37 degC under aerobic conditions. The total bacterial contamination of hands in terms of the number of colony forming units (cfu) will be recorded after 48 hours of incubation. Bacteria present in the samples will also be qualitatively identified and reported. The microbiologist examining the culture plates and reporting the microbiological results will be blinded to the hand hygiene method used.