 Corresponding author: Andrée Emmanuelle Sika Department of Food Science and Technology, Laboratory of Biotechnology and Food Microbiology, NANGUI ABROGOUA University, 02 BP 801 Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. Copyright © 2021 Author(s) retain the copyright of this article. This article is published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Liscense 4.0. Antibacterial and antifungal activities of hydroalcoholic hands products sold in Côte d’Ivoire during covid-19 Andrée Emmanuelle Sika 1, * , Ollo Kambiré 2 , Bertin Tiekoura 3 , Florent N’Guessan 1 , Rose Koffi-Nevry 1 and Marcellin Dje Koffi 1 1 Department of Food Science and Technology, Laboratory of Biotechnology and Food Microbiology, NANGUI ABROGOUA University, 02 BP 801 Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. 2 Department of Biochemistry and Genetics, Peleforo Gon Coulibaly University, BP 1328 Korhogo, Côte d’Ivoire. 3 Department of Bacteriology and Virology of the Pasteur Institute of Côte d'Ivoire, BP 01 BP 490 Abidjan 01, Côte d'Ivoire. GSC Biological and Pharmaceutical Sciences, 2021, 16(02), 297–305 Publication history: Received on 04 July 2021; revised on 18 August 2021; accepted on 20 August 2021 Article DOI: https://doi.org/10.30574/gscbps.2021.16.2.0230 Abstract In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, hydroalcoholic products are widely used for hand disinfection. Côte d'Ivoire has also opted for this barrier measure. Ivorian markets and supermarkets have been filled with new hydroalcoholic products of various compositions and colors, certified or not by the Ivorian standardization agency. It was important to verify the antimicrobial efficacy of these hydroalcoholic products. To do this, we tested 16 hydroalcoholic products collected from supermarkets in Abidjan. The microbial load on the hands of 144 volunteers was determined before and after hand rubbing. These hydroalcoholic products were also tested for antibacterial activity against Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Klebsiella pneumonia and Proteus mirabilis; and antifungal activity against Aspergillus fumigatus and Penicillium chrysogenum. The results of this study showed that hydroalcoholic products tested significantly reduced the microbial load on the hands after friction. The germ inhibition rate was between 94.99 and 99.97%. Of the 16 hydroalcoholic products, only 3 showed antibacterial and antifungal activity on all indicator strains. In contrast, 4 showed no antibacterial and antifungal activity on these strains. The low efficacy of hydroalcoholic products tested in vitro is an indicator of the lack of quality control of these products. Some of them could not therefore guarantee the health security of the populations. Keywords: Hydroalcoholic products; Hand; Bacteria; Fungi; Côte d’Ivoire 1. Introduction The emergence of novel pathogens, bacterial or viral, has always posed serious challenges to public health around the globe [1]. One of these dangerous pathogens is “severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2” or SARS-CoV-2, more commonly known for causing coronavirus disease 2019 or COVID-19, which has been declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organization in early 2020. One of the many ways implemented to prevent the spread of this virus is hand hygiene. Hand hygiene is well known as one of the essential good practices for reducing infectious disease transmission [2]. Hand hygiene generally refers to various methods of reducing or killing microorganisms that may be present on the hands, either by washing or by disinfecting. Practicing hand hygiene with hydroalcoholic friction has become a WHO- recommended procedure for equal opportunity use of any of the hand hygiene methods: the procedure is faster, more effective, and better accepted than washing with water and antiseptic soap [3]. In addition to being useful in the absence