Hands are among the principal vehicles for transfer of nosocomial pathogens in hospitals. Often, outbreaks of infection are thought to be caused by a lack of compliance with handwashing guidelines, rather than due to the inadequacy of the handwashing agents used. In this study the effectiveness of proper handwashing and the use of three different hand disinfectants: ethanol 70% (E), isopropanol 40% (I) and alcoholic chlorhexidine (70%) (AC) was compared using three volunteers whose fingertips were heavily contaminated with a succession of bacteria including: Enterococcus faecalis, Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli and Enterobacter cloacae. After each contamination, thorough handwashing and application of one disinfectant on the hands were performed three times. Fingerprint-samples were taken before and 1 min after application of the disinfectants. Thorough handwashing with an ordinary liquid soap ('Sterisol') did not reduce the confluent growth of bacteria on fingertips for any of the species used (197 examinations). Only AC had a significant effect on fingers heavily contaminated with S. aureus (126 examinations; AC compared with E and I; P less than 0.0002 and P less than 0.0002 respectively), but did not completely eradicate the bacteria. After contamination with Ent. cloacae (118 examinations), none of the three agents were particularly effective, but E and AC seemed to be somewhat more effective than I (P less than 0.0002 and P less than 0.01 respectively). When successive contamination was performed using all bacterial species, AC was the most effective decontaminant. However, Ent. cloacae was still present on the fingertips after 15 repeated courses of handwashing and applications of disinfectants. Bathing of hands in AC for 20s completely eradicated all bacteria from the hands. The study demonstrates that, when heavily contaminated, an ordinary handwashing followed by disinfectants is not enough to eradicate potentially pathogenic bacteria from the hands.