There are only a few pathogens against which the commonly available hand rubs are ineffective. These include uncoated viruses such as noroviruses and the spores of spore-forming bacteria such as C. difficile. In the case of the noroviruses special virucidal hand rubs are recommended (see the RKI's list of disinfectant hand rubs [ 9]), because epidemiological studies have shown that as part of a package of measures these preparations make a real contribution to the containment of outbreaks. For spore-forming bacteria such as C. difficile, the recommendation is first to disinfect the hands in order to kill off the vegetative form, then to wash them briefly but thoroughly to reduce the number of spores as much as possible